


Life is Fucked

by Evilyoyo



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Character Swap, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, F/F, Gen, Kinda, No Lesbians Die, Slow Burn, Will tag more as I go, even though max is bi, ish, people die but, whatever
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-03-02 18:50:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 45,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13324326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evilyoyo/pseuds/Evilyoyo
Summary: When Chloe moved back to her hometown she knew at some point she was going to have to deal with the whole Max thing. She wasn't expecting her old best friend to be so ... death prone though. Good thing she can control time or else that would be a problem.ORRole swap AU where Chloe is the main character so she gets the powers and Max is her sad skater sidekick





	1. Chapter 1

Chloe was first aware of the rain pelting her back, it was so heavy that she felt it sting through her thick sweatshirt, then the wet mud under her cold hands and howling wind in her ears. She pushed herself up, trying and failing to whip her mud covered hands off her soaking wet jeans, as she could only stare in shock at her surroundings. The trees around her were bending a frightening amount, and the sky above was completely black with clouds. If it was daytime, she couldn’t tell.

“What the fuck?” she gasped in shock, she could barely hear her self. “What the hell is going on ?” She shouted, pushing her blond hair out of her eyes. Only wind answered her.

How did she get here? She didn’t remember coming out in the woods, why didn’t she remember anything? She should definitely remember why…. One of the nearby trees finally cracked under the of the wind, it was nowhere near her but it was close enough that she jumped. She turned around, seeing the lighthouse up the hill. Even that old building would be better than staying around here right? Chloe slowing made her way up, trying to not get knocked over the wind or slip in the mud. Finally, she sees the trees open up, then-

“Holy Shit,” she whispered.

Chloe had never seen a real storm before, the odd rain and thunderstorms sure, but even the worst storms from her childhood, when she had deathly scared of thunder, had never looked like this. A massive tornado was sitting just off the cost of Arcadia Bay. It looked like something from a horror movie, but the wind and the rain made it real enough to her. As she stared in horror tornado started to rip into Arcadia Bay completely destroying the ducks and water font.

She was so forced on the slight on this storm that she almost missed the large sailboat that the wind picked up like a toddler and his bath toy. It flew right over her head and crashed in the Lighthouse behind her, bringing the whole stone tower down on her. She raised her hands instinctively, knowing that it would do nothing.

Then, before she was crushed and just as sudden as her appearance at the lighthouse, she was in her 6th-period classroom. Her heart was beating quickly and she had to stop herself from gasping out loud, she wasn’t supposed to be here, she had promised her mom that she wouldn’t come, she was going to be so upset-

Wait, no, her mom was in a completely different city! For a moment she had forgotten that this was where she was supposed to be, that feeling of wrongness lingered in her mind. She looked around at the classroom around her but everything seemed normal, Victoria was being a teacher’s pet, Taylor was cheering her on like the lap dog she was and Mr.Dickerson was talking about over pretentious shit. Normal.

What the everloving fuck was that? She rubbed her eyes. She hadn’t had a dream that felt so real in years, not since her nightmares about her father had stopped but even compared to them this dream had been ….more. Like if she looked down her pants would still be covered in mud. When had she even fallen asleep? She never falls asleep in class….

Shaking her head she decided to ignore it for the moment. Better to freak out later when she wasn’t surrounded by The Plastics or whatever mean name Victoria’s group should be called. She felt queasy and anxious but knew to try to leave would just end badly, Jefferson would no doubt refuse her request then say probably something borderline offensive, Victoria differently would, then Chloe would say something back and it would end with her either getting kicked out of school or her going to jail for punching Victoria. It depended on how much of a dick Victoria was today.

So she decided to do what she had been doing before her… dream, ignoring everything Jefferson said and instead doodle in her sketchbook.

It wasn’t that she was a lousy student, she had A’s and B’s in all of her classes including this one, she wasn’t super interested in photography. Not that she didn’t enjoy it, but it wasn’t what she wanted to do with her life like most kids in this class. It was more of a hobby for her. It had just happened that there had been an empty space open when she had transferred in the middle of the year from Seattle and she knew having such a popular class would help in with getting into different colleges.

Her annoyance was that she hadn’t realized that most of her fellow students would be complete art snobs and bootlickers. She wasn’t unfamiliar with them, she lived in Seattle for the past five years where everyone was an art critic, but it was a little much sometimes.

When she was putting the finishing touches on the antlers of a deer, she was in a horn phase right now, art-wise, getting the shading right was fun, Jefferson seemed to realize that she hadn’t been paying attention. Considering she hadn’t been paying attention the entire time she thought that looked worse on him than her.

“Now Chloe, since you obviously think you know everything I have to teach, can you please tell us the name of the process that gave birth to the first self-portraits ?”

She straightened in her chair, and her face brightened, “I did know!” then she slouched over plopping her chin into the palm of her hand. “Then I forgot it,” Chloe said with a shrug.

Jefferson apparently didn’t find that as amusing as she did, “You either know this or not. Is there anyone here who actually knows their stuff?”

Victoria, of course, did know the answer and, of course, tried to make fun of her while answering. Victoria was good at multitasking that way. Considering that her come back involved her saying the words “sad face” out loud like someone's grandpa Chloe considered it a win on her part.

Thankfully she was saved by the bell and quickly left the class ignoring Jefferson’s remark on her avoidance to turn in a picture for the Everyday Hero contest.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to enter it, it was just that she couldn’t seem to take any pictures that she liked lately. Chloe knew she was a pretty good photographer, Jefferson wouldn’t have let her in the class, open seat or not if she wasn’t. But ever since she had transferred to Blackwell, she had felt off-balance.

Maybe that is what caused that dream? Stress? Chloe sighed, putting what books she didn’t need for studying into her locker. Maybe….she popped in her earbuds, maybe her Mom was right about her coming back here.

Her mom had been upset with her about going to a school so far away, to begin with. Hearing that she wanted to go to an art school that was in the town where her beloved husband had died? It had taken months of arguing and the agreement that she could only go if she managed to get a full scholarship. But Chloe had known that she could handle it, she needed to be able to handle it.

The fact that she had failed a year in middle school was excusable, her father had died for fuck's sake, but she needed something for her college applications, her future job applications even.If she wanted to get anywhere with her own artwork she needed every advantage she could get. Going to Blackwell was perfect for that, and the fact that she ended up in an extremely prestigious photography class? Just icing on the cake.

But it was so damn hard being back in her hometown, hard to be the new kid again, hard to see the house she grew up in, hard to see that the place she remembered as homely so actually …. shity.

If she was honest to herself the hardest thing was to ignore the strong urge to go town, walk a street she’s stepped down countless times, knock on the door and ask, “Is Max home?”

It was stupid. Completely fucking stupid and she hated herself for thinking it.

Realizing that she had been staring, glaring honestly, into her locker she closed it harder than intended. Huffing, she decided that a moment to cool down in the bathroom was a good idea.

She stepped into the, thankfully, empty bathroom and started to splash cold water on her face. After a few moments, her short hair was soaking wet, so she shook her head like a dog. She looked up at the mirror; at her wet pale face and suddenly felt so very angry. At this shit school, her fucking classmates, that bitch Victoria, her over-controlling mom, and she pissed at herself. Getting stressed out when she knew she could handle it, for thinking that some art program was actually going to help her and she was hella fucking pissed about being so upset with something she thought dealt with years ago.

“God fucking damn it !” Before she could think, she punched her reflection, smashing the mirror to pieces.

“Ow shit shit shit!” Lucky her hand wasn’t cut too severely, and she didn’t seem to have any glass in it, but her hand was bleeding a lot. The sudden anger left her feeling empty, as it always did.

As she let the water run over her hand, she closed her eyes and sighed. She just needed to focus on something for a while, clear her head of all this crap. She hasn't been able to just.... draw in weeks because she’d been so stressed out. The Everyday Hero Contest is in a couple of days, she’d start there.

She took her hand away from the water, it had stopped bleeding, but it still hurt when she moved it. She had better get some band-aids…. Wait she should have some in her book bag. Just when she opened her bag, however movement through the window caught her eye.

It was a butterfly, a beautiful one at that. It was a bright blue with black edges, like no other butterfly she had seen. The blue of its wings seemed to almost ….glow. She reached for her camera, an old Polaroid Spectra, it’s film was expensive but the camera had been her fathers. She followed it into the corner of the bathroom and watched it land. If she got a good shot of it then she may actually have a shot at winning the contest. Suck it icky Vicky.

“Snap!”

She took the picture, lightly shaking it. The butterfly fluttered past her seemingly uncaring that a person was so close. Chloe felt…. a sense of sadness and longing fill her, but it also calming like everything would be alright.

Before she could wonder what the hell that was about, the bathroom door opened. She froze, she had just punched out a mirror and as much as she hated this place sometimes she did actually want to continue going here. She was hidden from the doorway, she’d just wait till whoever was in their stall and make a break for it. Should be a piece of cake. Right?

“It's cool, Nathan… Don't stress…”

King asshole? What the fuck is he doing in here ? She stayed hidden, Nathan had a reputation of being a little….unhinged. There was a reason he was in the girl's bathroom after school and she differently didn’t want to get involved if she could help it. Dude needs a hella amount of help though, that’s for sure…. Muttering about blowing up one's school was not a good thing when you could actually buy a bomb.

Then a teenage girl walked in, she was a little short and had a backward blue baseball cap, sleeveless hoodie and cargo shorts on. Chloe couldn’t see her face that well but she didn’t look like anyone who went to Blackwell. She would have spotted her a mile away.

“What do you want?” Nathan muttered angrily, he refused to look the girl in the eye.

“I hope you checked the perimeter,” the Avril Lavigne look-alike said as she looked into the different stalls. Thankfully she stopped before she found Chloe.

“I got nothing for you.”

“Wrong, you got cash. And I want that cash,” The girl's voice sounded determined.

“That's my family, not me,” he shook his low hanging head.

“Oh, wowers! You poor little rich kid.” Came the sarcastic response. “I know you been selling to kids around here... I bet your well-known family would help me out….”

That made his head jerk up, “Leave them out of this, bitch.”

“Alright sure,” she shrugged. She lends on the sink next to his. Chloe could barely hear her say, “ I’ll just tell everyone that Nathan Prescott is nothing more than prick who begs like a little girl…”

Before either of them realized, Nathan had the other girl pinned to the wall as he shouted, “You don’t know who you're messing around with!”

Wait. Chloe froze in place. Was that a fucking gun?!’

“Put that thing down!” That made Nathan angrier as he pushed the gun into her ribs. Skater girl was trying to back up, but there was nowhere for her to go.

“Don't EVER tell me what to do. I'm so SICK of people trying to control me!”

“You are going to get more trouble for this than drugs!”

“Nobody would ever miss your pathetic ass would they !?”

“Get that gun away from me!”

Chloe didn’t think of her reaction, but her body moved without her command. She felt herself move forward, no plan, just the hope that she could help whoever it was that Nathan had pinned to a wall with a gun. But she was too late, in her second step she could see the girl jerk back, and blood was already flowing from where she had been shot.

“No!” Another step and the girl was halfway to the floor, Chloe reached out to her knowing that there was probably nothing she could do. But she never managed to take another step and the girl never fell the ground. Everything slowed, the gun falling from Nathan’s shaking hands froze mid-air. For a moment... just a moment, everything was still. She was just frozen as the rest of the room, could only look at the scene in front of her.

She felt a wave of sadness wash over her, enough that if she had been able to, she would have cried. It only lasted a moment before that same rage bubble up inside of her.

Chloe blinked, and everything became a confusing mess of color and noises. Her eyes suddenly started to hurt like she hadn’t been wearing her contacts, she felt like she was moving in all kinds of different directions at once. She was pushing something back, but she couldn’t see or even physically feel what it was. But she had to push it as far as she could because she was Chloe Price and she always pushed as far as she could.

Then it stopped, She wasn’t reaching out for some hurt girl anymore, she was sitting down. Her face was dry, her hand didn’t hurt, and she was in her 6th period.

Everything seemed normal, Victoria was right there, being a teacher’s pet, Taylor was cheering her on like the lap dog she was, and Jefferson was talking about over pretentious shit. Normal, no guns, no dying girls falling slowly to the ground. For a moment she thought that maybe the bathroom had to be another dream, but she couldn’t believe that; it had been much too real to be a dream. Then she started to actually listen to Jefferson.

“Alfred Hitchcock famously called film ‘little pieces of time,’ but he could be talking about photography, as he likely was-”

Why did she know he would say that? Fuck fuck fuck, all right Price, don’t freak out, don’t freak out….If she really went back in time then everything else would repeat, right?

She hadn’t really been paying all that much attention the first time, but everything she had remembered happened again. Jefferson’s lecture was the same, bad jokes and all, then right on cue, Victoria’s phone had rung. At the same exact time, just it had the first time.

She just barely kept herself from yelling out loud but couldn’t stop her arm from jerking up to hold her head up, she suddenly felt faint. She had forgotten that her camera was sitting on her desk and in her moment of panic, had hit it with her hand sending it crashing to the floor. Usually, such an action would cause her to get very upset. That was her father’s camera, after all, she once punched a bully for daring to even touch it.

Typically she wasn’t dealing with the fact that she could fucking travel through time.

So. She had gone back in time. Was that a one time deal? Or was this...power something she could control? Chloe looked down at her broken camera and bite her lip. Maybe….She had lifted her hand toward the girl and pushed back on that energy so maybe if she tried to do it again….

Slowly, feeling like she was ten again playing Mages and Dragons, she lifted her hand. A moment later she felt it, the same kind of energy she had felt in the bathroom with the butterfly and then when the girl had been shot. She grabbed it and pushed it back as far as she could, the same feeling as moving in different directions filled her, and the room around her rolled backward like an old VHS tape. She felt that some kind of stopping point where her pushing seemed to hit a wall. She released her grip on the energy, and everything started moving forward again.

She was right back to when she started, her camera sitting unbroken at her desk.

“I can fucking control time!” she shouted out loud to the shock of her classmates.“How hella awesome is that !”

The room was shocked into silence.

“Oh shit my bad,” Chloe realized she may have been a little too excited. She held her hand up again, “But actually you know what? Fuck all of you. Jefferson, you are a creepy teacher and an asshole and Vicky? You are a fucking kissass who needs to get laid.”

She rewound time and this time she didn’t shout. She took another look around, and it was the same moment as before. Looks like she couldn’t go farther than this moment… Why? Could it have something to do with her dream? More importantly, she could save that girl from before! She had powers! She could easily stop that from happening !

“Mr.Jefferson, can I go to the bathroom?” She called out. Better to get there early and then she could plan on how to stop it.

“Nice try, Chloe. But you're not going to getting away that easy,” Jefferson said in an almost mocking tone. Victoria was openly giggling with Taylor. “We can talk more after class.”

“You fucking-,” She started before deciding that she didn’t feel like arguing that a teacher can’t just tell a student that they can’t go to the bathroom. She tried to rewind a little bit this time, enough that it was before her question but not all the way to where the ‘wall’ was.

Ok well. She could always just go to the bathroom like before. Chloe could control time, so it wasn’t like she run out, she’d figure out what to do when it happens.

Everything happened the same way as her first time, this time though instead of doodling in her sketchbook she stared into space. She had long ago perfected this kind of stare, the trick was to stare close to where the teacher was, nod every once and a while and hold a pen like you were going to write something down. It worked every time. It was enough that when Jefferson asked his question again, he asked Victoria instead of her.

She didn’t have that much time left in class, but still, her mind wandered. Where had these powers come from? Were there others like her out there? How did they work? What were the possible effects?

Chloe had grown up with a father most people would have called nerdy, he liked reading her comic books as bedtime stories, they watched old cartoons together, and he let her help make decisions in his games. If there was anything she learned from all that was that time travel was the most confusing and dangerous of any magic power. But she hadn’t killed anyone for it, and so far the only thing she noticed was that she had had a small headache where she jumped from the bathroom to here.

Maybe because that was more of a time jump than a rewind? The leap from the bathroom to the classroom had felt different but perhaps because it was a reflex?

“-yes Chloe, I see you pretending not to see me.”

She jumped, she had been so spaced out that she hadn’t heard the bell ring. She quickly threw all of her things into her bag and started off to the bathroom. She didn’t bother going to her locker, this was far more important.

The bathroom was, of course, the same but she couldn’t help to see it in a different light. A girl got shot here, could have died here. It felt like finding out that someone had died in your house. She walked up to the mirror again and looked at herself like she had before. She had been so angry with herself. And now? She could control time and she was going to save a person's life. Chloe splashed water on her face again, trying to actually get the idea in her head. Suddenly it felt wrong like this had been a mistake, this kind of thing didn’t happen to her, good things like this didn’t happen to her. Things like fathers dying, moving away from your only home, and your best friend ignoring you, that's the kind of stuff that happens to Chloe Price.

Before she could continue to wallow, she felt that feeling of melancholy tranquility again. There it was, the same glowing butterfly. She followed it back to the corner, and she took it’s picture still as well. It wasn’t about the contest, it felt right. Like this was what she was supposed to do.

If life gives you time controlling powers, you follow glowing blue butterflies. Or something.

After the butterfly flew away, the door opened, and she heard Nathan muttering himself. Knowing just how close he was to freaking the hell out, she decided to wait. If she went after him now, he might try to shoot her.

“What do you want?”

‘There’s the girl,” Chloe noted. If she spoke up Nathan may try to shoot them both, she suddenly realized that she had no plan. She really hadn’t thought this through! She glanced over at the wall where the fire alarm was, it was the old kind with thick glass so you had to use a hammer. That would be perfect! Wait….where the hell is the hammer? Fuck this fucking school.

Later Chloe was not ashamed to admit that she forgot that she could rewind time. She was under pressure, it was her first hero gig, sue her. She knew that he was going to shoot that girl, so she had to stop him. So Chloe punched out the glass with her bare hand.

“Don't ever tell me what to do. I'm -”

Thankfully he was cut off by the loud blare of the fire alarm. She couldn’t see what was happening as she was facing away from them and she was busy gripping her bleeding hand.

“Don't ever touch me again, you fucking asshole!” She heard the sound of a slap then the door being slammed open.

Hell yeah! She saved that girl! Chloe smiled brightly. Who cares that her hand was cut up? She saved someone's life! She glanced down at her hand and winced a little. It was cut up worse than when she had punched the mirror but nothing too serious thankfully. Nothing some band-aids wouldn’t cure.

When she walked out of the bathroom, after washing off her hand and wrapping it in some paper towels, the halls were deserted. Not surprising since the alarm was still going.

“Hey, you should be outside!”

It was a security guard, a very upset security guard. He was a large man with closely shaven hair and a full beard. His name tag stated that his name was Bradshaw.

She froze. Does she tell on Nathan? He was the richest kid in town, it probably wouldn’t do anything. But on the other hand he could have, and actually kinda did, kill someone.

“You were the one that pulled the alarm, weren’t you? Your face is covered in guilt, what did a boy make you pull it? ”

“What? No! Well kinda-“

“So you are hiding something-“

“Thank you, Mr.Bradshaw, I can handle Miss Price. If you would please turn off the alarm.” Saved by Principal Wells. Not something she thought would happen, the man had been nice enough when she meet him during her orientation to Blackwell but had been rather cold with her ever since. Of course, that was when she saw him, he wasn’t known to wander the halls.

“Miss Price?” Principal Wells motioned for her to come closer. “While Mr.Bradshaw was a little… excited in his questioning, he has a point. You’re sweating pinballs. You can be upfront with me, Chloe.”

She very nearly rolled her eyes at that, if it had been anything other than almost murder she wouldn’t even bother. Everyone knew that the Prescott's practically owned this school. But this? Yeah, she had superpowers, which how awesome was that !? But what were they going to do when she couldn’t stop Nathan from going ham again tomorrow?

Wells must have taken her silence as guilt, “Unless you’ve done something wrong is that it ?”

Why did everyone just assume she was guilty? She was an almost straight A student for crying out loud. Was it the baggy pants? Her Horde t-shirt?

“I saw Nathan Prescott waving a gun around in the girl's bathroom, so I pulled the fire alarm,” she then waved her towel wrapped hand, blood showing through. “Also that fire alarm had no hammer.”

Wells raised his eyebrows in surprise, though she couldn’t tell if it from what he heard or that fact her hand was cut up. “Nathan Prescott? You are sure? ” He said like Nathan wasn’t known for getting into trouble.

“Yes, he was muttering to him about how he could blow up the school if he wanted to, I freaked out, ok?”

“Slow down…. you saw this without him seeing you ?” He sounded a little accusing.

“Well yeah I wasn’t going to show myself, he had a fucking gun!”

“Language Miss Price, I just want to make clear what happened. Mr.Prescott comes from one of the towns most distinguished families and is quite the honored student himself. So I find it hard to believe he would just walk into the ladies bathroom with a weapon.”

Chloe huffed, “Well he did, I saw it. Are you going to bust him? He could have hurt someone!”

Wells seemed tried, “This is a solemn charge, I’ll look into personally.”

“That’s it? If it wasn’t some rich kid-“

“We will continue this later Miss Price. Please head outside with the rest of the students, the building is going to be closed for the evening.”

Chloe turned to the doors with a muffled growl of anger. She thought of going back and changing her answer but decided against it. Who knows maybe Wells would find his balls and actually do something about this. Plus it was better to have some record that Nathan was ready to blow.

Even though Blackwell was a mess the students treated the threat of a fire like every other school, they ignored it completely. But she had to admit, the grounds around Blackwell were soothing. She was tried, the adrenaline was wearing off, and her hand started to make itself known.

She walked towards the dorms, she needed some time to think about all that had happened. It was hard to believe that only 20 minutes ago she had been in class and had no idea that she could control time. Though really it had been more like an hour, right? Since she had rewound time? It was going to freak her out if she thought about it too hard at the moment. The thought that she saved a life was suddenly a heavy one. She really needed a moment alone and maybe watch some stuff on time travel.

She almost ignored her phone when it went off, but she hadn’t turned off the sound and ignoring “For the Horde!” being screamed at you was as a little hard, so she decided against it. It was probably Warren, and he would just keep blowing up her phone until she answered. He may be one of her few friends around here, but Warren could get a little clingy. They had bonded they're shared like of comics and sci-fi though most of her own interests leaned toward fantasy instead. He was a good study partner too, he took better notes then she did because he wasn’t in the art program, so his workload was smaller than hers was.

Oh, he just wants his flash drive back? That wouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes and then she could head to her bed and crash….


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe sees Max again. It's a little more than she thought it was going to be honestly

Her father hadn’t been dead more than two months when she moved to Seattle. The move had come after the second hardest time in Chloe’s life where her mom had shut down for two weeks after the death of her father. She had stayed at Max’s house the entire time and they had stayed in Max’s room for ages, just watching tv, not talking to anyone, not even each other. Max’s mom had let them, had brought them meals, snacks, and offerings to talk about it. She had just started them to go outside for small chunks of time when Chloe’s mom awoke from her own depression and decided to try to get away from memories of William Price because she refused to stay and wallow in grief in backwater Arcadia Bay. She had also closed herself off from the world including Chloe and it had felt like she had lost both parents in one car accident.But she had Max so she made it through. She could get through anything if Max was there and she always had Max. 

See the real funny thing about that was Chloe could not actually remember meeting Max Caulfield.

She could remember coming inside the house from the backyard saying that she had made a new friend and asking if she could take her friend a cookie. Or not really asking more like trying to take the whole jar outside and then getting caught. Her parents had thought Max was an imaginary friend at first that she had made her up to have more cookies, which is fair she would totally do that, because why would a random little girl be outside in their backyard? Chloe had been trying to explain that Max was real and they were best friends so Chloe needed to give her cookies as a reward for her friend when Max’s mom had knocked on their door moments later to have Max apologize for sneaking into their yard.

That had been the start of their friendship, they had spent countless nights at Chloe’s house and countless hours running around the neighborhood on their bikes. They had whole fantasy worlds that only they knew about, comics book that Max wrote and Chloe had drawn. Chloe’s dad had taught them both the basics of photography when they were pre-teens. Max had been constant in her life for longer than she could remember.

So when she never wrote back after Chloe had moved? It had more than hurt, it had pretty much wrecked her.

The first couple of months after the move were by far the hardest in her life. She failed school that year, which surprised no one. She fell into a deep depression where nothing seemed to interest her, as everything reminded her of her father, who was dead or Max, who abandoned her. When she could finally do anything other than lay in bed, she closed herself off from everyone else. Ironic since Joyce had finally come around to comfort her daughter only to find a standoffish teen who wanted nothing more to stay inside and not talk to anyone.

Chloe had friends in high school, just not ones that hanged out after school or went to parties together. She didn’t mind, she liked to stay at home, playing video games, drawing, and painting. The only times she went out if she wasn’t going to school as if she was trying to take new pictures.

Yeah, she knew she wasn’t the healthiest mind wise but she was dealing with it ok. Yeah, there was a lingering sense of self-hatred but what teen doesn’t have that? So what if she wasn’t ready to tell Warren that she was huge hella lesbian? So what if she was closer to Max that she had been in years and it was eating her up on the inside not trying to talk to her at least one more time? To ask why? She didn’t know how long she was going to ignore all of this mess that was going inside her head. It was building up and making it hard to study and draw and sleep. But she had ignored it all the same and so here it was. Biting her on the ass. Life sucks hard and makes you deal with things before you wanted to.

Though she had to admit, it was hard to be mad at Max after watching her die in the bathroom. Knowing that someone had been that close to death would do that.

Max had saved her in the parking lot about 10 minutes ago and she was still staring at her like she was seeing her for the first time. When Chloe had last seen her she had been 13 years old, her hair had been dyed black and cut in a rather unflattering fashion and she probably wore something pastel because that was all Max wore. Just so much pastel.

But the girl in front of her did and didn’t look like Max. Her face was pretty much the same, some more freckles than before but overall the same. Her hair isn't dyed that awful black and she couldn’t tell how it was cut, only that it had to pretty short like her own if she couldn’t see it from under the blue baseball hat she wore. She was wearing the sleeveless hoodie like before, black with a dark blue hood and the same cargo shorts, which like her Vans, looked like they seen better days. But what was really getting to her was Max’s arm, she had been staring at it the most as Max drove her death trap of a car.

‘Max has a tattoo? And are those muscles? What in the fuck?’

Not that her tattoos were tasteless, Max Caulfield had always been an art student at heart after all. The tattoo started on her shoulder, a stags head drawn in a geometric style and was colored in like a watercolor painting with dark blues and purples. A bright blue ribbon ran behind it and down the rest of her arm where a second tattoo rested on her forearm. This one was a simple arrow but had the bright pinks, purples and blues colors overflowing the lines. Chloe had seen the style online but never in person and it looked just as awesome as she had thought it would. 

“Nathan is such a fucking asshole,” Max glared at the road as she drove, She didn’t seem realized that Chloe had been staring at her. Thankfully. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” Chloe rubbed her neck. It was a little sore but Nathan had gotten the worst of it, she had seen the lines on his face when she jumped into Max’s car. “Yeah, I’m alright. Next time I see him I’m going to deck him though.”

Max’s glare let up a little, “Five years and you are the same Chloe Price huh? Still going around punching boys.”

She couldn’t do more than a chuckle, “ It has always been a favorite pastime for me…” The joke fell flat. Chloe looked out the window, ‘Max has tattoos? Goody two shoes Max? I should have known that she was all grown up and…. Different.’

After a moment of pure awkwardness, Max sighed, “You don’t have to pretend to be happy to see me, Chloe, I know that I fucked up.”

“I’m glad to see you, Max, even without the rescue.” She remembered that Max could have died today, no had died today, and she wouldn’t have even have known it was her. Her best friend, even the years apart weren’t going to change that, died. And while she knew she shouldn’t ask because she probably wasn’t going to like the answer she needed to know, “Why”?”

“Huh?”

“Why didn’t you write or text me back ?”

Max gripped the steering wheel, “ I...just... froze, ok? Like I always did when you weren’t around to help me.”

Chloe shook her head,“I really needed you .”

Her friend knocked off her hat to run her hand through her hair, what little there was. Her hair was cut close to the sides and longer on the top but that was still shorter than Chloe’s own hair which had been called ‘Manly’ by Victoria more than once.

‘Fuck look at you….you changed a lot, Max.’

“When you left me just…. It hurt Chloe. A lot. I was still so upset about Uncle Will and when I got your letter…. I couldn’t deal with it then. I mean I tried to write you back later but everything I wrote seemed so empty and heartless like I had a right to complain about anything after what you went through. Then it was too late,” Max looked over, as they rolled up to a stop sign. “So I’m sorry, ok ?”

It felt good honestly to hear that. To know that Max was sorry about the whole thing, that Chloe hadn’t been more invested in their friendship than Max had been. She had thought about Max’s reasons for dropping her out of the blue and Max just plain not knowing what to do crossed her mind once or twice. And really after the day she had? Making up with an old friend was exactly what she needed.

“...I was thinking about coming to town you know, knocking on your door, seeing if you’d talk to me. Thought it was too pathetic .”

Max pushed her junker to forward with a snort, “God, my dad would have had a kick out of that.”

“Your dad?” Chloe was surprised, Max’s dad never actually lived in the house with her.

Max’s dad was one of the few things that they had talked about only rarely growing up. At the start of their childhood, he had been a mystical being sending presents at Christmas and birthdays and coming once or twice a year to take Max on trips out of town. As they got older the more upset about the whole thing Max, and by extension Chloe, had gotten over it. There was more to childhood then holidays after all. 

“My parents were married at some point but I can’t remember it,” Max told her years ago after crying over the fact her dad wouldn’t be able to see her artwork at school. “ Mom told dad that unless he left the army he didn’t get to have a say about my name, that’s why my last name is Caulfield.”

“Yeah, my dad,” Max huffed, bring Chloe back to the present. “The asshole moved back to town years back.”

“Damn that sucks.”

“Things around here kind of went to shit without you Chloe,” she smiled at her, the first she has seen from her yet. It made her look like her Max again. “I’m really glad you’re back.”

“It’s good to be back.”

She let them sit for a moment, she was so tired honestly. She had a long day. First-time travel, dealing with Victoria, the Dana and Juliet mess, Warren, Nathan and then it top it all off her best friend from five years ago rolls up in a death trap saving her either getting a beat down Chloe leaded back in the seat and looked out the window. She could tell they were heading into town and if she was right, to Max’s house. When she looked over to ask if that was right she sees that the sun was just beginning to lower. Max was leaning back in her seat, one had on the wheel and her other playing in her hair. The sun was shining off the small metal pieces of her bracelets. She looked like she could be on the cover of an alternative magazine.

‘I’ve got to take a picture of this,’ Chloe thought already reaching for her camera.

“Aww for hella sake…” Her camera was busted. Because of course, her father’s camera would get busted on a day like today.

“Ha haven’t heard that in a while,” Max glanced over. “Oh shit dude, is that the one that Uncle Will gave you ?”

“Yeah and now it’s trash because of that dickface.”

“I’ve got some tools,” Max patted her shoulder, “Maybe you can fix it at my place.” 

Chloe sighed again, “Today has been a long day.”

Max chuckled, “Welcome back Chloe.”

The rest of the drive was short, as she knew it would be. Chloe may have not been into town more than once since she moved back but you don’t forget how to get around your hometown. It was surprising just how much somethings had stayed the same.

Max’s home was like stepping back in time, it was comforting. She had been disappointed in the Bay when she first came back, the town she remembered was so much less now that she was an adult. But this? This felt good, felt like a second home.

Max walked straight to her room and Chloe followed her, despite the urge to look around downstairs for old memories. They hadn’t spent as much time over at Max’s as they had Chloe’s when they were kids because Max’s mom had always been so busy at work. Not that she didn’t know her friend’s house like the back of her hand. 

“My room is a little different now I guess ” Max tossed her hat on her desk as she hopped onto her bed.

“You think?”

Max’s room had been an art kids room, a desk covered in half-finished art projects and bookshelves covered stickers. Soft rugs and posters of boy bands. She had always been the more organized of the pair even if only she could find anything.

But the room in front of her was a mess, soda cans covered the old desk by the window and clothes covered the parts of the floor. The boy bands poster were still here but were more punk than before. New posters lined the walls as well, men doing skateboarding tricks and a few women posing with boards.

“Here, put on some music.” Max tossed her a disk, “You don’t mind if I smoke right ?”

“Go ahead, it’s your room. ” Chloe answered as she turned on the old CD player. ‘God I can’t believe that this thing still works…’

After a moment of fiddling, she got it to turn on. “This thing is fucking old, why-“ Chloe paused. “Oh wait when you said smoke…”

“Yeah, totally talking about weed. I mean look at me, Chloe.” Max gestured to herself.

She thought about arguing for a moment about stereotypes but shrugged. She hit play and let some music play. Not her style but bearable. “Point. Where are your tools at? I want to get started on this fucker.” She shook her camera a little.

Max pointed to her desk, “Should have most of the tools you need in there. I haven't used them for a while though.”

Chloe dug around and sure enough found most of what she needed and she filled the trash with old soda cans, really Max? Really? so she could clear a space on the desk to work. It was nice to not have to think for a moment and just work on her camera. She could only tell that Max was in the room because of her breathing.

‘I wonder if she knows how close she came to dying today? What she was thinking trying to threaten Nathan like that….’

Lost in thought she dropped one of the tools into the desk drawer and when she pulled it open to get it a folded up picture caught her eye. It was Max, her hair longer and pulled back into a braid with a few colors mixed in, blues, purples and just a hint of pink. It looked like a selfie with Max grinning at the camera. It took Chloe a moment to realize that Max’s arm was wrapped around another girl. She was pretty with her long blonde hair and hazel eyes, one of her arms was wrapped around Max and the other was keeping a blue baseball cap in place. It was the same hat that Max had on this afternoon, though it looked in better shape in the picture.

‘She looks so happy here… I wonder who this is? Come on….Chloe, you didn’t think Max had no friends did you ?’

“Hey, give me that!” Max jumped from where she was laying on the bed. “Come on Chloe don’t go through my stuff.” She grabbed the picture from her and stared at it, her face showing none of the happiness that the picture did.

“I wasn't trying to be nosy.” She couldn’t help but ask, “Who is she? Obviously, she’s a good friend.”

Max stared at the picture for a second then softly said, “Kate. Her name was Kate.” 

‘Was.’

Chloe felt like an asshole, “Oh shit, I’m sorry Max…”

“No, it’s my fault you don’t know right? You know it’s funny, she always said that you would forgive me if I tried to talk to you.” 

“You talked about me ?” She was flattered.

“Yeah, a lot actually.” Max seemed far away, “ Kate used to tell me to write to you all the time but I was always too scared to actually do it. Kate was…. after Uncle Will, losing you and what I did to you then on top of it my dad moving in, I felt like shit about myself, you know? Kate helped me a lot, she saved me from myself.”

Chloe sat down on the bed next to her,“Max… I had no idea, that things had gotten so bad for you. I always thought you just forgot about me.”

Max looked her in the eye,“I never forgot you, Chloe, ever. I know I gave you tons of reasons to think that but I swear I didn’t.”

“Then why didn’t you write me about all this? You had to know that I wouldn’t have been as upset if you told me about this…”

“What kind of friend would that make me ?” Max rubbed her eyes, she thought she saw them shining like she was fighting to urge to cry. She better not or else they both would end up crying their eyes out. “Complaining about my father being an asshole when you had lost yours?”

“Max…. ” Chloe shifted closer. “Come on, you think I would have been mad about you talking to me? Who wouldn’t want to talk to Max Caulfield?” The laugh she got was half sob, she pulled the smaller girl into a loose sideways hug and rubbed her arm.

“She said she wanted to meet you,” Max’s voice was rough. “And now you're here but she-she isn’t-” She covered her mouth but Chloe would hear the sobs trying to break free.

“Aw fuck, don’t cry,” She pulled Max into a tighter hug with Max’s head resting on her shoulder. “You know I don’t know what to do when you cry…” Chloe felt herself start to tear up, “Ummm there, there?” she sniffled a little. 

Max laughed in her shirt and while she felt like dying of embarrassment she stopped crying so Chloe counted it as a win.

After a moment Max spoke up, “ We were so different from each other and we had plans you know? We were going to get out of this backward town, go to college out of state…”

“What happened ?”

The grip on her tightened, “She killed herself.”

“God, I’m so sorry Max.”

Max’s voice was weak,“I could tell something was wrong but she wouldn’t talk to me about it then she …. It’s been six months and it still hurts.”

“I know,” Chloe mumbled, trying to comfort her friend. “I know.”

“I just ….” Max pulled away and rubbed her eyes. “ I know something happened to her and no one will listen.”

“What do you mean ?”

“She said she met someone who was going to help us get out of here. Then we went to a party one night, we went together but she disappeared a couple hours in which was weird for her and I couldn’t find her.At the time I thought she went off with her guy but she wasn’t the same after that. She wouldn’t talk to me about it but I found plan b in her room. Kate didn’t sleep around Chloe, and less than a month later she was dead.”

“Fuck, did you talk to anyone else about this ?”

Max rolled her eyes,“No one else would listen or care. Her parents blamed me for it and everyone at school started to act like bring around me was going to make them kill themselves.”

“Max…” 

Max hopped off the bed quickly, seemly uncomfortable sitting next to Chloe. “If something happened to Kate and she felt like she couldn’t come to me with it? That means what she did was on me.”

“The hell did does,” Chloe jumped up off the bed. “You can’t save someone if they don’t tell you what’s wrong.”

“I wasn’t there for her and if I’m right then she needed me-”

“If something happened to her that she thought that the only thing she could do about it was to kill herself then it sure as hell wasn’t your fucking fault, it’s whoever did its fault! And we should go Veronica Mars on their fucking asses, find out what happened to your friend and kick their ass, hella hard!”

Chloe was breathing a little hard and Max was staring at her dumbfounded. For a moment she was scared that she had said something wrong but Max rushed forward and pulled her into a crushing hug.

“I’m so glad your back Chloe,” Max said as she pulled away.

“Me too,” and she meant it. Even with all the shit, she was now dealing with, school, Max, Max’s stuff, time travel for fuck's sake, she felt better, lighter. She had forgotten how good it felt to talk to someone else like this, she hadn’t really done so since her father died. She and Max hadn’t even healed enough to talk about her dad’s death before she moved.

“Look if you are for real about helping me with Kate, we can start tomorrow after school alright? I know it’s late and you will have to be getting to back to Blackwell soon. But I’ll take a look at your camera and see if I can fix it, I’ve had to fix mine more than once.” Max said as she took a seat at her desk. She picked up the camera and fiddled with it a little.

“Thanks, Max.” Chloe was grateful, she hadn’t been getting anywhere and she really didn’t want it to be busted. 

“You kept up with this huh ?”

“Yeah a little, I’m still more into drawing but I enjoy it.” She took a seat on the corner of the desk, watching Max work on the camera. “What about you? You were always way more into it than I was.”

“Mmm well kinda? Here and there. I’ve been mostly into skateboarding.”

She looked at Max’s- well everything,“ I couldn’t have guessed.”

Max laughed, “Yeah well smartass that’s the point. My sperm donor hates ‘skate punks’ and so I may have gone out of my way to fuck with him.”

“I see so the hair and the tattoos ?”

“Hair yes, tattoos no. I don’t care about cutting my hair but I’m not about to get a tattoo out of spite. Well actually that's not completely true,” Max nodded to her forearm, where her tattoo of an arrow was. “That one was inspired by spite, just the colors though.”

Chloe looked at the tattoo again, she thought the pink was a bit much but couldn’t see anything spiteful about that or the blue and purple. “It’s nice, but how is it spiteful?” 

“I overheard him tell my mom that I would grow out of it so I decided to get the flag colors,” Max held up the camera.“I think that should do it, now let's see if it works!” She took a shot of Chloe’s confused face. It came out of the camera alright but they wouldn’t be able to see if it developed well for a few minutes.

“Show me some of your work while we see if I worked my magic, oh masterful Chloe.” Max bowed her head like she was speaking to royalty.

“Oh, um, sure,” she was a little nervous all of the sudden. She reached into her bag for the box of pictures she had taken but hadn’t yet put on the wall in her room and handed them to Max.

Chloe held her breath for a moment as Max looked through them, they weren’t her best she knew. She hadn’t been on her best game since coming back to the Bay and she had meant what she said too, photography was never a huge passion like to had been for Max. That didn’t stop her from wanting Max’s seal of approval. 

“These are pretty good Chloe,” Max told her, looking at a shot she had taken of a squirrel. “I’m glad you kept up with it.” 

“Thanks, I-”

“Wait... I've seen this before,” Max held up the picture of the blue butterfly from this afternoon. She had forgotten that she put that in there, it felt like a lifetime ago that it had even happened.

“Uh…”

“When did you take this? In the bathroom today…” Her head shot up, taking in Chloe’s cut up knuckles in a new light. “You were the one set off the alarm! That's why Nathan flipped out after you…”

“I was there... hiding in the corner,” Chloe admitted. 

“Wowsers, you-you saved my life !” Max jumped up and hugged her, “Holy shit dude!”

“I just pulled a fire alarm I didn’t fight him or anything and I almost wet myself when I saw the gun..” She really felt undeserving of this praise. The only reason Max wasn’t dead was that she controlled time, somehow, if that didn’t happen her best friend would be dead. She hugged Max tighter.

“So, did you recognize me?” Max asked as she stepped back.

“Not at all. Your hair and clothes are as different as night and day.Plus the tattoos….”

“Yeah” She ran her hand through her short hair. “I'm sure this is all so weird to you after coming back.”

“Like you said,” Chloe sighed. “It's been a long day.”

Max sat down on the bed, “You must have overheard me and Nathan though.”

She moved to sit down beside her, “Just a bit…”

Max rolled her eyes,“Please Chloe that means you heard every single word.”

“You know me so well.”

Her friend was tense so she patted her back, “I heard some stuff about him selling shit which is no surprise.”

“Did you tell anybody? About what happened in the bathroom?”

Chloe answered honestly, “Yeah, Nathan had a fucking gun and if I hadn’t- He could have killed you Max I told Principal Wells but the fucker didn't seem to believe me.

“Wells? That drunk only cares about cash for Blackwell, fucking asshole.”

“I figured,” she shrugged. “But I thought to have some kind of record that Nathan was nuts may be a good idea.I didn’t mention you or anything so you should be fine.”

“Thank God…. I seriously owe you, Chloe. My own knight in shining armor.”

Chloe laughed, “ I’m just happy I was there.” She picked up the picture that Max had taken of her a few minutes before. The picture had appeared, clear and sporting no problems or marks. She didn’t like pictures of herself but this one looked good. “Super Max for the win! Thanks for fixing it, it means a lot.”

“I’m glad I could help-”

“Maxine, are you up there?” Came a voice from downstairs.Chloe thought she recognized the voice but she couldn’t place it. “And how many times have I told you to stop playing this shit?”

“Man, the music's not even loud! Asshole.” Max hopped up and turn off the stereo.

“Maxine we need to talk!”

“You need to hide,” Max whispered to Chloe, pushing her toward the closet. “Now! My dad will kill me if he finds you here!”

Chloe let herself be pushed and watched from inside as Max opened her door for her father.

‘Oh, shit Max’s dad is that dick bag security guard from school? God that has to fucking suck.’

“One of my guns is missing, Maxline. Did you take it?” Bradshaw asked as he stepped into the room. He seemed just as much of an asshole at home as he was at school. Poor Max.

“ I didn't take your stupid gun,” Max crossed her arms. “ Why would I even want it ?”

Bradshaw glared at her, “I don’t know, I just know that it is gone. For all I know you could have tried to sell it on the street, I can smell that you’ve been smoking it up in here!”

“Oh, what the hell do you care about me smoking ?” She had never heard Max sound so bitter. “You only care about my shit because if you didn’t mom would drop your lame ass!”

Bradshaw stepped into Max’s space and pointed a finger at Max’s face with a glare that she matched. “You leave your mother out of this.” Chloe’s heart started to race again like it had in the bathroom.

“I wish she’d leave your sad pathic ass-”

The sound of the slap was loud and Max was thrown to the ground by its strength. Chloe was out of the closet before she could think about it and while he stared at her in surprise had punched Bradshaw square his jaw. He stumbled back a few feet and she gave him a knee to the nuts for good measure. Her hand was screaming in pain, she talked big but she wasn’t much of a fighter and she reopened the cuts on her hand

“Don’t you ever even THINK about laying a hand on her again you fucking asshole!” She started to rush over to Max who was starting to sit up. “Are you alright? Wait, fuck, of course not, sorry,-”

Bradshaw recovered fast and grabbed her arm, “You're that punk from this afternoon! I’m going to have you thrown in jail for this !”

“The fuck you are,” Max rose to her feet. “She was defending me from you, you asshole!”

“And who are the cops going to believe, Me or you two, the weed smoker and the lier?” Bradshaw let go of her arm and pulled out his phone. “Look I only want the best for you-”

“Fuck you asshole,” Chloe had enough. “I’m sorry Max, I shouldn’t have let him hit you in the first place, that was my fault.”

Max looked at her, face half red and set in a glare, “ The fuck it is-”

“But don’t worry, I can control time and I’m not just going to let him hit you.”

She grabbed time and pushed it back and started rewinding back. She wasn’t back in the closet but she figured that she was close enough that they wouldn’t notice. Her hand was bleeding again and it was going to be a bitch to write with but she was feeling only pissed as fuck. Chloe had appointed herself Max’s champion over ten years ago when she had been nine years old when Max had been bullied at school. She had never actually had to fight anyone because she had been the tallest kid in the grade but she always said she would take on anyone who hurt her and she meant it. But if she could stop the hurt before it happened? That would be even better. Plus she would rather not deal with his cop friends.

“-have tried to sell it on the street, I can smell that you’ve been smoking it up in here!”

“Max wasn’t smoking in here, it was me!”

Bradshaw and Max both jumped and turned to her, Bradshaw with a glare and Max with surprise.

“ I don't like strangers in my home,” He said to them both. He stepped up to her like he had Max and she tensed. “I'm so sick of you losers dragging Maxline down ,you're bringing drugs into my home and giving her ideas that she shouldn’t be having. I should call the police wouldn’t that would screw up your ‘spotless’ record, Mis. Price?” 

Max get in between them, which Chloe noted as kind of cute since they both stood over her by a lot. “Get the hell away from her, dude! Leave my friends alone!

Bradshaw huffed down all her but stepped back, “You don't have any friends, Maxline. Friends don’t bring drugs to your home.”

Max snapped back, “Like you would know. You're not even a real cop, you're a fucking security guard!”

He took a step toward Max but seemed to think better of whatever it was that he was going to do. He seemed to know that he had lost this argument and made for the door but stopped in the doorway. “ Ms.Price, if I see you here again...You'll learn all about real trouble.”

Max glared at the door after he was gone. “Thanks for that, Chloe…. Really. I knew I shouldn’t have smoked in here but after this afternoon I just-”

Chloe ruffled Max’s hair a little with her good hand. “That guy is an asshole. I’m sorry you have to deal with him.”

Her friend sighed, “ He isn’t all way that bad and he never acts that way around my mom. She doesn’t believe me when I tell her that he’s a dickbag. Well, I mean she does…. just not about how bad he gets. She thinks I overplay it.” 

What could Chloe say here? I just have seen how bad he gets? I’m sorry your dad hit you? Wait- was that the first time? If not how often did that happen? How dare that fucker hurt Max, she should-

Max cut off Chloe’s line of thought. “Let's sneak out the window… There is one place we can hang before I take you back to school.”

“Oh shit really?”

“I mean I don’t want to go past dick-brain but if you're scared-”

Chloe slapped her on the shoulder, “You ass, you know that I’ve always wanted to climb out of a window. You were the one that always said ‘No Chloe that’s too dangerous!’. Come on let's go!” 

“Well for one you need to shhh, dude,” Max grabbed her keys and opened the window she carefully stepped out walked to the edge and jumped down on the green grass below.

Chloe followed after her, excited. She didn’t break rules often but that was just because she never had a reason too. She had been surprised that Max had turned into such a rebel but she liked it. Max seemed so much freer now and Chloe was liking her friends new, to her, confidence.

She watched as Max reached into her car through the window and opened her door before climbing inside and unlocking the other door for Chloe. “Why do you do that ?” She asked as they drove from Max’s house. “Does your door not work?”

“Nope! I could try to fix it but I like to think it keeps people from stealing it if they can’t get the door open.”

Chloe looked around at the car, with it’s cracked leather seats, a cracked headboard, no working radio and that speedometer is broken. “Max who in their right mind would steal your car?”

Max turned to her in betrayal. “My car is great, I mean come on it has bomber seats!”

“It’s a rolling brick, I’m sorry-”

“And a turbo button!”

“Just because you can put a bed back- Wait bullshit it does!”

Max pointed to gear shift where sure enough there was an extra button the side. “See dude? Turbo button!” She pressed it and while they didn’t take off the car did start going faster.

“.....Well, fuck.”

Chloe realized where they were going pretty soon, “The lighthouse ?”

“Yeah, nobody comes up here. It’s only a little out of the way from Blackwell so I figured we could hang out here for a while then I’ll take you back.”

Max pulled the car to a stop and Chloe jumped out, she had loved coming here but hadn’t been able to since she moved.“Come on, slowpoke!” She took off up the hill. She heard Max say something about her seatbelt getting stuck and to go on.

She slowed down for a moment, she hasn't been here in years….So why did it feel like she was just here? She looked around and then she realized that it was the same path she had been on during her nightmare. But how? That was no way she could have known how the trees had grown or that there was a bunch of tree trunks at this point of the path.

Chloe decided to leave it alone, she had dealt with enough shit today. She sat down on the bench overlooking the bay. It was just as beautiful as the last time she had been here. It had been so long ago now, was it when she and her dad had come here? Or when she and Max had craved their names into one of the trees behind her?

She heard Max walk up, she was muttering something seatbelts being dumb, and patted the bench, “ Have a seat, Pete.”

“My pleasure,” Max sat down, arms open wide on the top of the bench. “ Feels nice out here after all that drama… I'm sorry you had to experience it firsthand.”

“Come on don’t say sorry, you have to live with him. Has he always been that way? You never talked about him much as kids. ”

Max sighed, “Kinda? I didn’t realize it for a while. He’s conservative, not like ‘kill the fags’ conservative but it’s been getting worse since I started to push back on him. I’m not going to hide who I am for someone like him.”

“Hell no, fuck that guy, who wouldn’t be happy that their kid was Max Caulfield?”

“Thanks, Chloe”, she smiled at her. “It’s so hard to live with him sometimes you know? He has files of students, I’ve seen them. He still thinks he's gathering enemy intelligence and I told my mom but she just told me not to go through his shit. Like it’s normal that he would have files on students.”

“Shit man, that’s crazy!” Chloe ran her hand through her hair, “What the hell happened around here while I was gone?”

“You know how it is, man, everybody in this town has secrets…”

“Max… You got to tell me why you were in the bathroom with Nathan.”

The shorter girl sighed and rubbed her face. “He's an elite asshole I heard sells bad shit…” She stopped.

Chloe knew that couldn’t be all, “You know you can tell me anything.”

Max rubbed her arm and didn’t look her in the eye. “ He dosed me with something drug in his room, alright?”

She was shocked,“What ?”

“After Kate had died I had seen him in some shithole bar, he was wasted as fuck and he kept flashing bills. And I was a fucking idiot. I thought he was so gone that would be an easy score. Just in and out you know? I wanted the money to just take off out of here but he put something in my beer.”

Chloe was feeling that rage again, she was really going to beat Nathan the next time she saw him. “What happened, Max?”

“I guess I passed out, I woke up and that perv was crawling towards me with a camera I just reacted I mean everything about it was a blur. I know I tried to kick him and he freaked, and I got the hell out of there.”

“What did you do then?”

“ I ran all the way home. It was….just nuts. I thought about going to the cops but Nathen is the son of the richest family in town, there was no way they would do anything you know? I thought maybe I could make him pay me to keep quiet. So we met in the bathroom.”

“And he brought a gun. Look I know why you want to get out of here so bad but Max that was a really bad idea…”

“I know!” Max jumped up off the bench, “ I know Chloe, but I mean Nathan won’t come after me again it’s too risky for him right now since you told everyone he has a gun…”

“He's still dangerous, Max, and there’s no way I’m going to let him get to you. But I’m afraid I won't be there to save you…”

Max walked closer to the cliff, “ You were there today Chloe. You saved me, after all this time...I'm still tripping on that... Actually seeing you again after all these years feels like—”

Chloe walked up to her, standing only feet from the drop off for the cliff, “Destiny?”

She grinned, “If this is destiny, I’m glad you're here.”

Chloe’s head started to pound, “Me too.” She could feel time around her, she wasn’t reaching for it but it was differently reaching for her. It felt like claws digging into her skin but she tried to push it back and away. It wasn’t letting her go but she tried to anchor herself to Max’s voice.

Max didn’t see her grab her head as she was looking out over the bay, “I miss Kate, Chloe. This place... I hate it here. It’s taken away so many people from me. I'd like drive away and never come back.”

Max stopped, probably to let Chloe speak because that was how conversions worked right but Chloe couldn’t speak. How could she when time itself was fighting her, trying to pull her away?

“Chloe-“

But she lost her fight with time and Max was gone.

Chloe was back in her nightmare, thunder sounding in her ears and rain soaking her through to the bone. She looked around, it was the same spot as before, just a bit down the hill from where she had been with Max.

“What Is happening to me ?” She shouted. She realized that she wasn’t in the same clothes as before. Her horde t-shirt was gone and instead, she had on her father’s old Alliance sweatshirt, “Wait- what the hell, this should be in my room! What the fuck is going on!”

She looked around, hoping for any kind of sign when she spotted a bright white rabbit. It’s fur stood out against the dark woods around it. The longer Chloe looked at it the more she realized that something was very… off about it but the biggest thing was the fact that the damn thing was see through.

“Well, what other choice do I have?”

She walked carefully up the trail, the rabbit staying well out of reach but always in eyesight. It led her up to the lighthouse, Max thankfully not there, where again the tornado sat at the mouth of the bay.

“I don’t- I don’t understand!” Chloe said to the rabbit. “Are you trying to tell me something? About this storm?”

The rabbit just looked at her from its spot next to a post on the cliff edge. Then it was gone.

She grunted in annoyance and stepped over to where the ‘animal’ had been. There was a paper wrapped around the post and she grabbed it. It was a newspaper and its date wasn’t for today but instead was four days from now.

“This- this is the future?” Chloe’s shock made her fingers lose and she watched the newspaper fly off to the wind. “That storm it’s going to destroy the town in-“

A hand turned her away from the storm and then there was no rain or thunder and she wasn’t in her father's sweatshirt and Max was there and-

Chloe dropped to her knees, covering her eyes with her hands trying to take stock of where- no WHEN she was. She felt Max drop down beside her, felt her hand on her back but all Chloe kept seeing was that fucking storm heading right toward town. She grabbed her friend's other hand, “Max you're here right? That was real--it's going to be real! Oh, fuck that was no nightmare, shit, shit-”

Max continued to rub her back and she could be the concern in her voice when she asked, “Chloe, what's going on? You blacked out there.”

Chloe shook her head. “I didn't black out...I had a vision. The whole fucking town is going to get wiped out by a huge tornado…”

“Tornado? Chloe, I think I should get you to bed, it’s been a long day…”

“No, no, I saw it!” She could feel the disbelief. “I felt everything, rain, that fucking sailboat about to crush me-”

Max grabbed her hand and she let her, “ Take a breath, okay? I’m right here.”

Chloe did as she asked, “I'm not crazy.” She mumbled, she knew she sounded crazy but she needed Max to believe her so badly.

“I would never think that Chloe.” Max squeezed her hand.

“There's something I have to tell you…” Deep breaths, Chloe, deep breaths. “Something that is going to make you think I’m nuts.”

“Just talk to me,” Max looked her in the eyes, “I’m right here.”

“I had this same vision earlier in class... When I came out of it, I discovered I could reverse time.” Max froze beside her. “ I swear I’m not crazy.”

“Chloe-”

“Listen to me,” She gripped Max’s other hand, now they were both sitting on their knee holding each other’s hands, “How do you think I saved you in the bathroom?”

“By reversing time? That’s not possible-”

“I saw you get shot, Max .” Chloe watched her face pale and knew her face matched. “Saw you actually...die.” She took a deep breath. “I saw you die and was able to go back and hit the fire alarm…” She held up her hand. “ Cut me up a little to do it but worth it.”

“You always had a great imagination, but people don't have those powers, Chloe.”

She let go of Max’s hands and stood up.“I don't know what I have, but I have it. And now? I'm scared shitless.”

Max put a hand on her shoulder, “It's been an insane day, I’ll take you-”

Chloe felt a drop of cold against her cheek. It was a snowflake. She looked up at the clear sky and watched as more fall around her. It should have felt good, like in a Christmas movie where it snows and all the kids run outside to play.

But it felt wrong. Very wrong, it was out of place like the snow had been picked up and dropped here.

“What...the hell is this?” Max was just as surprised as she was and she held her hands up to catch a few to look at. “Snowflakes... It’s like...eighty degrees. I’m not even cold. How ?”

“I told you, Max, a storm is coming,”Chloe looked her, almost begging her to believe her. She couldn’t explain it but she needed someone on her side.

“Chloe,” Max stared at her, looking into her eyes. Whatever she saw made her take a deep breath and say, “Start from the beginning. Tell me everything"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, We now have Max.  
> And also sadly no Kate. Yeah, that was my other switch, Kate, and Rachel. Some of you noticed I didn't put anything on missing posters now know why. I thought this was a bit better storywise plus it gives Max a reason it not be such an ass like Chloe, she's had time to heal a little.
> 
> Also, I switched Max's dad for David but he is honestly just what I thought they should have gone with instead of trying to make us like David, I mean it can be done but why? David can actually hit Chloe in the face in game and I'm supposed to feel bad about him dying? Nahhhh 
> 
> If you would like to yell at me about this fic please go to chloepleasestopdying over on Tumblr and we can yell together.


	3. Chapter 3

Chloe wasn’t a stranger to all-nighters. She was a nerd, she had stayed up playing video games all the time so all-nighters were as easy as breathing at this point. But this one was leaving her feeling like the undead. Granted she had stayed up longer than what she actually had because time travel was dumb and hurt her brain.

“Ughhhh….”

Thank god she didn’t have a class in her first-period block. She rolled over and tried to work up the energy to get up out of bed. That couldn’t be managed that but she did get her eyes open, unfortunately, she had left her blinds open and now was blind but she’ll make due, and caught sight of her ‘research’ from the night before/early this morning. 

Chloe had spoken to Max at the lighthouse for over an hour after the freak snow. She had told her of her first vision, had stuttered along how Nathan had killed her and she how somehow went back in time and changed her fate. Afterwards, Max had asked where her powers came from and how they worked and Chloe had to tell her that she had no idea. Were they always there just lurking? Just waiting on Chloe to use them?

Max had dropped her off at the dorms that night and they had texted back and forth as Chloe had tried to learn as much as possible about time travel. It was just too much for her alone to research so she had entrusted Warren to find her any pop culture that was about time travel that she may have missed. After all what kind of time travel was her working with here? Was she making stable time loops? Thus everything she did was is fine because it was supposed to happen? Or was she creating alternate timelines? Was her every rewind messing up the future? Was she one step from letting Vandal Savage take over the world- no wait that was a tv show and wasn’t real. Maybe. Though she would totally join Sara Lance if she rolled up. 

Her research had really spiraled out of control when she realized she couldn’t just research the science side to this. She had to take into account that her powers could actually be magic. Which killed her on the inside to think because duh magic isn’t real but there was no way she could explain this with actual science. Someone may be able to but she couldn’t come up with anything.

Why couldn’t she get super strength? That was an easy superpower to have, at most you just had to eat more. But no if Chloe Price was going to get a superpower it had to be the one that could super dangerous to all living things.

Her phone started to ring and Chloe reached for it, “Who is hell is calling me so early?” 

“Chloe Elizabeth Price what in god’s name did you do?”

Fuck. Full name was never a good sign.

“Hi mom, how are you?” It was only a little sarcastic.

“Don’t ignore the question, Chloe.”

She sighed, “I just woke up so I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”Joyce huffed, “I’m talking about the phone call I got from your school last night about you making ‘unfounded accusations’ against a fellow student.”

Chloe sat up sharply, “ Oh that's bullshit!”

“Language!”

“Well, it is! Unfounded? I saw that asshole! Money hungry dickbags, I-“

Her mom spoke over her, “Chloe, you stop right there!”

“Mom-”

“Now listen, you argued about going to that damn school for months and you know I still don’t agree it was a good choice but I love you and I know you wouldn’t just throw it away. I just want to know what you got mixed up in. What happened?”

She dropped back down on her bed, wondering what she should tell her happened. She couldn’t prove time travel over the phone so that was out but she could tell the truth about what happened in this timeline, maybe her mom would believe her even though it was it seemed Wells did not.

“I-I was in the bathroom and I saw a dude walk in waving a gun around ranting like a nutjob about how he owns the school, that he could blow it up if he wanted too. It freaked me out so I pulled the fire alarm and told the principal like they always tell you to do but he doesn't have any balls so -”

“Are you telling me that you have seen a boy with a gun in your school? ” Chloe hadn’t heard that much anger in her mother’s voice since she and Max spilled a wine on the carpet when they were kids.

“I- yeah.”

“Who does that man think he is? Trying place the blame on my kid instead some-some puck!”

“Mom, that punk was Nathan Prescott.” 

“Prescott? Like as in Sean Prescott’s son?”

“Yep.”

She heard her mom sigh into the phone, “I fear that you step right into some trouble , kid.” 

She ran her hand through her hair, which really needed to be washed, “ What was I supposed to do? Just let him get away with it? Fuck that! No, I’m going to make sure he gets what’s coming to him.”

“That sounds to me like there is going on then you just seeing a gun, Chloe.”

Fuck.

“I - I can’t….I don’t….”

“Chloe,” her mom sounded so tired and oh no-, “Please.”

Before she could stop herself she blurted out,“Nathan threatened Max!”

Double fuck.

“Max? As in Max Caulfield? Why on earth would anyone want to threaten that sweetheart?”

She sighed, at least she could keep this part a secret. “I don’t know. I didn’t want to tell anyone she was at the school or least she could have gotten in trouble….” Points for being kinda true. 

“Mmm, I thought you haven't heard from her?”

“I hadn’t but I saw her in the bathroom and I decided to, you know clear the air or whatever.” She decided to also not tell her mom about Nathan trying to beat her in the middle of the parking lot.

“How did that go ?”

“It went….”Amazing. Fantastic. “Good. It went really good.”

“Than I’m happy for you. How is Max doing ?”

This stumped her for a moment. She had started to say that Max was fine, had finally loosened up a little even. But then she thought of Max’s tears as she talked about Kate, thought of Max’s smiles which were so much harder to earn than when they had been young. She thought of that moment where Max’s own father had slapped her, had knocked her down to the ground.

“Chloe?”

“She’s had a hard time since I left ….she’s holding up though. She may have tattoos now but she’s still Max. ”

“Tattoos? Little Max? You girls sure grew up fast…”

Chloe laughed a little at her mom’s shock, at least she wasn’t alone in thinking Max’s tattoos were a surprise.

“Oh mom, I was wondering if you had met Max’s dad? I don’t remember meeting him as a kid.”

“Ryan? Mmmm no I don’t believe so. He was always deployed for so long, Vanessa told me he was a little hard headed but was a good man.”

Chloe snorted, “Nothing good about him, he’s an asshole.”

“He was in the army, Chloe show some respect,” her mother scolded her.

“Nope, just because you were in the army doesn’t mean I have to respect you if you are an asshole. Which he really is, mom. Now David? I can respect him. I ....don’t want to spread Max’s business but trust me when that man doesn’t deserve my respect.”

“Sounds like whatever he did to Max sealed that impression. Chloe…. I’m your mother and I know I worry about you too much but all of this? Guns, threats, and abusive parents? Chloe, I need you to think about coming home. Truly and honestly think about it.”

“I didn’t say he was abusive…”

Her mom chuckled tiredly, “I know my kid, the only thing that would make you hate someone close to Max that fast was if he was bad to her. Look I’ve got to go but please? Think about coming home?”

“I’ll think it over.” A somewhat believable lie, hopefully?

“Mmhmm, I’ll be waiting for your 3 part text on why you’ll be staying at Blackwell.” Guess not. “ I love you.”

“Love you too mom.”

Chloe rolled over pressing her face into her pillow. She was awake for sure now but by god did she not want to get out of bed. The conversation with her mom had gone well, great honestly if you considered their strained relationship recently. It felt nice knowing that at least her mom believed her.

Wells going to her mom about her telling on Nathan pissed her off though. How was he trying to pull? It wasn’t as if her mom could just pull her out of school, she was 19 for fuck's sake. The most her mom could do was guilt trip her, which she had been trying to do since she brought up going to Blackwell. If anything he’s phone call had put her mom firmly on her side, Joyce had always hated rich assholes, a side effect from her own childhood.

Chloe rolled out of bed, she was supposed to meet Max over at the Two Whales for breakfast and she definitely needed a shower beforehand. She smelled like microwaved pizza and Mountain Dew, an unfortunate side effect of a deep study session.

She grabbed her shower caddy and walked out of her room, ready to face the outside world. 

The dorms were pretty lively. She heard blasting music from Victoria’s room across the hall which was unsurprising. She rewinded once to push Alyssa out of the way of someone throwing a roll of Toilet paper, why was someone throwing toilet paper around she had no idea.

Dana’s door was open and she also had loud music playing, which actually was surprising. Dana wasn't known for being an early riser. Chloe had first classes with her before and the girl wasn’t awake until noon on a good day. They had talked yesterday afternoon for a little bit, it was kinda nice to hear of normal drama after the whole Nathan thing, though it sucked that Dana had to deal with all that shit on her own. Chloe liked her, she was cool and a lot nicer than most of the ‘popular’ crowd.

What was also surprising was that Trevor Johnson, one of the school’s skater pucks, had just walked out of Ms.Head Cheerleader’s room.

Well, now she wanted to know what was going on. She was nosy, what could she say.

Dana was dancing on her bed when she knocked on the open door, “Hey Dana what’s got you actually alive this early in the day?”

“Hey, Chloe!” Dana fall down into a sitting position with a thump. “I’m feeling a lot better yesterday after our talk which I didn’t say thank you for so... thanks.” 

Chloe waved her off, “No problem…. But was that Trevor I just saw coming out of here?”

Her smile was blinding, “Yeah, he came over to ask me to the Halloween party.”

“That’s awesome, I heard he’s a good guy.”

“He is and I’m not about to turn him down just because Victoria and her goon’s think he’s a loser. This party means we are going to start showing our faces together, that means you should totally come.”

Chloe blinked in surprise, “Me?”

Dana laughed, “Yes you. I have a couple of Halloween outfits, you can borrow one and come as a cute nerd couple with Warren.”

She made an instinctive Nope face at the thought of going anywhere as a couple with Warren. Or any other guy. “We aren’t like that. At all.”

Dana looked surprised, “Brooke seems to think you like him. Apparently, he asked you on a date yesterday before Nathan tried to beat his ass”

Chloe rolled her eyes, “Brooke thinks that because she doesn’t want to admit that he doesn’t like her or whatever.”

“And the date?”

“I didn’t get a chance to let him down before Nathan went nuts. There’s no way I’m going with him.” Chloe huffed, “Just because I talk to him everyone just assumes I like him, it’s bullshit. ”

Dana raised her eyebrows, “Well girls tend to talk to the guy they like Chloe.”

“Well, I don’t like guys…. younger than me.”

Nice save Price. Not. Her face was on fire, and she looked away. Of course, this was how she would out herself. God she really didn’t want to deal with this right now, time travel, dead girls, and Max were enough without adding coming out. Yeah, she went to an art school but she wasn’t exactly on top of the popularity polls.

Dana was silent before she spoke carefully, “I’m guessing you aren’t ready to talk about your dislike of ‘younger guys’.”

“Ummm no, not really.”

Dana nodded, “I can respect that. It took me a while to come out as bi.” 

Chloe blinked in surprise. “I…. thanks, Dana.”

“No problem Chloe. I’ll be here if you want to talk about it.” She rubbed her hands together, “But don’t think that means you get out of coming to my party, you in?”

“Sure why the fuck not.” It was least she could do. “I like Halloween, I’m not cosplaying though.”

“That's the spirit, Chloe! I’ve have you raving in no time.”

“Ha doubt that. I’ll talk to you later Dana, I’ve got to shower before all the hot water is gone.”

Dana winced, they all knew that struggle and waved her goodbye.

The showers were empty, somewhat expected as classes started soon. She just hoped that there was some hot water left. After undressing she turned the water to maximum hot and hoped for the best. It was nice to just stand under the water and no have to think. It hadn’t even been an hour since she had woken up and she already had to deal with her mom and pretty much outing herself. Still, both hadn't been too bad.

Chloe let her mind drift off into space, that’s what showers were really for after all. After a couple of minutes though she heard someone enter the bathroom. She took note and went to turn to water off as showering with others around made her uneasy even if was she slowly getting used to it.

But before she could she heard the person speak.

“You can’t just say that shit in the halls you know every bitch here likes to spread shit!”

“Victoria, please…. I’m just asking you to speak with him.”

Was that Victoria and Taylor? She couldn’t see them from where her shower stall was and she had to listen closely to hear them but it was differently them. What in the world could they be whispering about?

“And I’m telling you to leave it be.” Wow, Victoria sounded pissed.

“I-...He’s starting to scare people Vic. ”

“Then you can all hang out with Price and that dyke friend of hers.”

Fucking rude. Also, dyke friend? Did she mean Max? Because if she meant Max she was going to figure out how to go back to yesterday and post that picture of her covered in paint on facebook. 

“Don’t.” She never heard Taylor use such a firm tone with Queen B before.

“.....Sorry.” And she differently never heard Victoria apologize or sound so humble.

“Look,” Taylor sighed. “Nathan is my friend too but he’s been getting worse for months. After Rachel left…. I’m worried about him.” 

“It’s that bitch’s fault,” Victoria hissed, “Running off like that after teasing him along. I still don’t get why he liked her.”

“He started getting worse after Kate and you know it. Please talk to him,” Taylor lowered her voice so much that Chloe could barely hear her, “For me?”

Victoria sighed, “I’ve tried a few time already but I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you, it means a lot.” 

“Yeah yeah, now are we done? I have a class to get to.”

“You hate that class, you called the teacher a fat-”

The thunk of the door shutting close cut her off.Huh, so even Nathan friends knew he was going off the deep end. But what did Kate have to do with it? She’d have to ask Max if Kate knew him. Nathan drugged Max so there was no telling what that asshole could have done.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by the sudden realization that the water was ice cold and that she never hated her life more because of it. She turned it off quickly and threw her PJs back on then half jogged back to her room eager to put on her real clothes.

“Cold, cold, cold. Fuck I’m….” Chloe’s voice left her. Her room was a mess, her books were on the ground, posters had been ripped off the walls and the trash can had been toss across the room. The worst thing was the bright red paint that now covered her wall, in block letters it said- 

NOBODY MESSES WITH ME BITCH

But what was worst was the picture that was pinned under the message. Someone took a picture of her from somewhere and copied her face and crossed out her eyes then put it on another girl’s naked tied up body.

“Fuck…” Her heartbeat picked up and for moment she was frightened. And then she was pissed. Chloe tossed on some clothes, not really paying attention to what, then marched over to Victoria’s room and started to pound on the door.

“What do you want, Price? I’m about to leave for class.”

Chloe looked at her for a moment. She kinda wanted to slap her but Victoria couldn’t have been the one to mess up her room, she wouldn’t have had time in between talking with Taylor. So yeah it had totally Nathan. But Victoria had called Max a dyke….

SLAP!

That had felt good but she was not about to go to jail. She rewound time.

“-leave to class.”

Chloe crossed her arms and glared at her, “I swear to god if Nathan keeps fucking with me I’m going to go over to his dorm with a fucking baseball bat and wreck his over expensive shit like fucking Carrie Underwood.”

Victoria rolled her eyes and looked at her nails, “I don’t know what you're talking about. And really Carrie Underwood? What are you a backwater- Hey!”

Chloe grabbed her arm and pulled her across the hall and into her room despite her protests.

“Fucking bitch, who do you think you….are.” Victoria paled at seeing Chloe’s wall but turned white at seeing the picture.

“You better tell your boy that I don’t take well to threats.” Chloe glared at her.

Victoria didn’t answer.

“I swear to god Vicky-”

“I’ll fucking talk to him!” She grabbed the picture from the wall, “ This wouldn’t have happened if you had just kept your mouth shut-”

“He had a gun! Sorry, I’ll gladly ignore drugs because that’s your own bad decision but guns in the hands of crazy people kinda warrant some kind of action!”

Victoria glared at her and it looked like her eyes were watering a little, “He’s not crazy you fucking bitch!”

Chloe huffed, “Than why is Taylor scared of him?”

“How the hell did you know about that?” Victoria took a step toward her but she held her ground.

“You guys decided to have your talk in the bathroom, it’s not my fault that I overheard you.”

She took a step back and mumbled, “ Nosey ass bitch…” under her breath. She looked the picture in her hands for a moment, “Look…. I’ll fucking talk to him but I can’t promise anything, Nathan is going through a lot-”

“So is everyone one else, the difference is that I’m not afraid that they are going to shoot people.”

Victoria looked really to argue but held it in, “Look I said I’ll talk to him! Just hold off on wrecking his stuff alright ?”

Chloe thought it over, even though Nathan had threatened her she knew now that Wells would be useless. Whatever she didn’t feel like wasting time on going over to the boy’s dorms, she was tried and had to get going to the dinner.

“Fine, but you better tell him I won’t back down if he keeps pushing.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Victoria gave her a once over, “You know I’m surprised at you, you’ve always been pretty quiet since you came to town and now you can’t seem to stay out of people’s business.”

“Well Nathan fucked with a friend of mine, I don’t let that shit slide.”

“Friend? Who, Caulfield?” Victoria rolled her eyes, “That girl is nothing more than a loser stoner, she dropped out because she knew she didn’t have any talent -“

Chloe cut her off with a glare, “Max has more talent than you or any else in that stupid class and we both know it. She sure as hell isn’t a loser either. ”

“You just moved here, you don’t know her -“

She laughed, “I literally know Max better than the back of my hand. I grew up here in the bay, I know this place better than you do.”

Victoria seemed stumped on that, “I should have figured you grew up here, you seem backwater enough.”

“Yes, yes, hur dur, I’m a redneck. Now get the fuck out, I’ve got places to be.”

She received a middle finger and responded in kind. After Victoria left she did a once over of her room, looking to see if anything need immediate attention. Satisfied she decided that the clothes she had thrown on earlier (an old Starwars t-shirt and a pair of jeans) were good enough for breakfast with Max. She put on her light Overwatch jacket and grabbed her wallet and headed out.

It was a nice enough day out, no weird weather at all. Thankfully.

As she made her way out of the dorms to the bus stop, she was surprised to see Warren hanging around. The boy's dorms were on the other side of campus. He waved her down and she felt her stomach turn a little, Dana had said that everyone thought they were dating and she knew that Warren probably had a crush on her. God she didn’t want to deal with this but this is what she got for ignoring the problem.

“Hey Chloe, I wanted to talk about what happened yesterday!”

Oh man and now she felt like an asshole because Warren’s eye was bruised up pretty bad.

“Yeah, that was pretty intense. I owe you for getting that dick off me.”

Warren smiled and rubbed the back of his head. “No way, that dude had it coming.”

“I really appreciated it Warren, I mean you really stood up for me with Nathan.”

“Yeah I mean,” his smile dimmed. “You did kinda leave me there to go with the skater girl. How do you know her?”

“She’s an old friend of mine, Max Caulfield? She used to go here.”

Warren looked like he was liking it over, “Oh yeah, you used to live her right? Max….she was friends with that Kate girl, she dropped out right ?”

“Yeah, what happened with Kate hit her hard.”

“That sucks… But I bet you’re glad that she rolled up in the tank of hers, huh?”

Chloe smiled, “Yeah it was pretty sweet.”

Warren dimmed again, just a little. “But uh that begs the question, why is Nathan going off his rocker ?”

Chloe lowered her voice, “I caught him with a fucking gun. I told Wells but I doubt they are going to do anything. I would stay as far away from him as possible Warren.”

He shook his head, “Weird fucking week and it’s only Tuesday. Like that snowfall yesterday? Crazy shit…. but uh speaking of dystopia... the drive in I was talking about yesterday is having a ‘ planet of the apes’ Marathon.”

Oh god, why did she had to deal with this now…

“No thanks man, I , uh, I don’t think I could concentrate on it right now with all the shit going on.”

Warren’s face fell and she prayed that he didn’t ask why.

“Fine,” he grumbled. “Be a ‘damn dirty human.” He grabbed his bag and walked off to the main school building.

Well, that was harsh. She thought of rewinding for a moment but there was no way Warren wasn’t going to get upset unless she went to the movies with him and that wasn’t happening. Chloe hoped he got over it, he was a good friend most of the time.

Her phone beeped at her, a reminder that the bus to town was coming within the next five minutes. Chloe pushed her thoughts aside and started rushing to the bus stop. Yeah, she could control time but jumping across the campus was probably going to be noticeable.

The bus was waiting when she came around the corner so she didn’t take much time to look around the campus. But out of the corner of her eye, she sees Bradshaw talking to an upset Nathan.

Maybe Wells was finally taking this seriously? She doubted it. Then the thought occurred to her that maybe Nathan was getting away with so much because the Head of Security was covering for him, but why would he? Money? Or maybe Bradshaw was just finally doing his damn job.

She took a seat on the mostly empty bus and sent a quick text telling Max that she was on the way. It was about a 20-minute drive so she popped in her headphones and let herself drift off into space.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little shorter than the others but only because I figure that it was a nice enough place to stop plus that way Max once again gets her own chapter. 
> 
> About Taylor and Dana being actual people- LiS is filling with characters that are super one-sided but have enough to them that you can fill in the blanks, which we as a fandom do. I hate that trope of the three mean girls, it's so boring. And I like Dana. I mean they still won't play like a huge role in this fic and that's why I'm not going to tag them (I take that back, Taylor may, depends on how the chapter after the next one goes) 
> 
> Some of you may ask why Victoria seems kinda less an asshole. My own headcanon for Victoria is that the reason she hates Rachel and Max so damn much is that she's attracted to them and kinda hates them for it. Also because they are both really good. Victoria is less threatened by Chloe so while she's not nice she's not a complete dick like she is to Max.
> 
> Also ayyyy come ask me shit over at chloepleasestopdying on tumblr


	4. Chapter 4

Damn, talk about time travel,” Chloe mumbled to herself. It was like walking through memory, the sound of seagulls overhead, the smell of the bay right across the road. When she had moved back, she had taken a small walk through town, but she hadn’t gone through here, ‘Main Street’ as it were. She had really only gone to see her old house and had declared that Arcadia Bay sucked.

Maybe she had been a little too harsh. She knew she had a problem with focusing on the negative. Though yeah, the bay wasn’t fantastic. But overall? Her childhood had been kinda great up to a point, and Arcadia Bay had been apart of that. No way was she going to stay here after she graduated but maybe she would come back here every few years. The area just seemed so timeless.

The Two Whales had always been a special place for Chloe.

See, when they were still pretty young, Max’s mom had been promoted to ‘manager’ at the popular local diner she served at.This didn’t really mean much, just a higher rate per hour and the authority to kick people out as she still served as well. Unfortunately, the longer hours meant that Max hadn’t been able to see her mom a lot. Luckily Chloe’s dad, who worked from home most days, had always stepped up and offered to watch both of them while their mom’s worked.

So Chloe hadn’t been as close to Max’s Mom, Vanessa, as Max had been to her parents. That wasn’t to say Chloe didn’t like ‘Aunt Vanessa’ as she had called her, she just had always worked a lot.

There were some days where her dad couldn’t watch them, maybe a deadline was coming up, and he actually had to focus, or he had a business trip. On those days Max and Chloe would hang out at the diner for a couple of hours. Vanessa would sit them in a booth and check up on them every once in a while. This had been where they had made up their comic books and where Max had discovered she liked photography after someone left a cheap camera at a table. So the diner was something of a fond memory for her even still a rare thing that was untouched by the dark memory of her father's death.

Chloe took a look at the parking lot but didn’t see Max’s death car. She pulled out her phone and texted her that she would grab them a booth and headed inside.

She couldn’t help but laugh, “I forgot how retro this place was.” God, there was that fucking jukebox, and she swore that the same gumballs were still in the case. The only thing that was different about this place was the updated flat screen tv. “Like I’m 14 again.”

Trevor and Justin were hanging out in one of the booths and seeing that Max wasn’t here she started to say hey, but they seemed pretty deep in conversation. Trevor was in a good mood, but Justin seemed a bit down. Which was weird for him, he always seemed so mellow to her, or high whichever. She nodded at them both but left them alone. Not in the mood to get in the middle of whatever they had going on.

She andMax had a special booth as kids, the one if the far corner because of course, they did. It was open, and Chloe took it she was nothing if not nostalgic. Nostalgia is also what compelled her to pick up a menu, Chloe hadn’t needed one for years, and sure enough, it too was the same.

“Chloe Price is that you?” And there was Max’s mom with a cup of coffee.

Vanessa Caulfield didn’t look at that different even five years later. Max took after her in looks, and after meeting her dad, Chloe was all the happier for it. Max definitely lucked out, Vanessa had been unofficially voted the cutest mom in middle school.

“Yeah, hey Vanessa.” She gave a awkward wave.

“Now look at you, I swear you just grew up so tall…” Vanessa put down the coffee and crossed her arms. “I heard my husband busted you with pot yesterday, imagine my surprise when he raved about a friend of Max’s, and it turns out to be little pirate Captain Chloe.”

Ah, shit now Max’s mom thought she was a stoner, that was just great.

“Yeah, I love…weed. I live that 420 life, blaze it.” She added a peace sign for good measure. “Sorry about taking it to your house though, I won’t do it again.”

Vanessa listened to this with a raised eyebrow, “Well, it seems that you two are tight again. Seeing that you two are already lying to me.”

Chloe flinched, “What? No, I mean it-“

She shook her head, “Let me guess, it was Max’s pot and her dad seen it?” Vanessa didn’t wait for an answer, “When they started arguing you stepped up and said it was yours so Max wouldn’t get into trouble?”

Chloe rubbed her head, unable to say anything.

“Mmm, that’s what I thought.”She sighed, “I was hoping you could be a good influence on that wild child of mine.”

She shrugged, “I can’t promise anything, I’ve always been a little wild myself.”

Vanessa chuckled, “Isn't that the truth….and you always took all the blame for her too. I hope we see more of you, Max needs an old friend again right now.”

“Kate? Max told me a little about it…”

“That poor child, she was such a sweetheart…” Vanessa sighed. “Max hasn’t been dealing well….”

“Max seems have changed a lot... I mean I never thought she would have tattoos!”

“Oh, she hit all the phases…” she counted them on her hands. “Running away, drugs, bad boys, bad girls, tattoos, piercings, purple hair, rebelling against her father.”

“ Well, I get why…” No way was she going after Max’s mom in the middle of her own restaurant. Maybe she didn’t know how much of an asshole he was? But how could she not know?

“He's not as much of a hardass as you think. But you did tell him you had a joint, Chloe, you two aren’t kids anymore….”

A part of her wanted to see what would happen if she told Vanessa that she had seen her husband hit Max. Or that he had looked like he had been about to beat her. Chloe didn’t even have to worry about making a scene now that she thought about it, she could get her answers and then rewind time. No one would even know. But Chloe couldn’t do, because she honestly couldn’t handle it if was the answer was an ‘I know.’ It made her feel like trash, but at least she knew that no one was going to be hurting Max anytime soon.

“Chloe I know this is hard to believe, but He does care about her, along with all the students at Blackwell. I just want us to be a family soon.” Vanessa sighed deeply.

That touched her. Joyce had said that to her when she had wanted David to move in after a few months of dating. Chloe had been set against it as it was hard to see another man replacing her father in every way. It was too much. David had taken it rather well, better than her mom did. He had asked if he could spend full days with them, a few weeks later it was weekends, and after a while, it was normal to see him breakfast.

It was the thought he gave the reaction that made her give him a change. He may not be her father, but she did consider him family.

“I get it ” Chloe smiled up at her.

Vanessa smiled back, “I’m sure you do. But enough of all that, What can I get you to eat young lady? Let me guess a Belgian waffle ?”

“You know it, I’ve been dreaming about it.” It was nice knowing that even after all these years she remembered what she liked. That was the kind of woman Vanessa was why she stooped so low for Bradshaw was a complete mystery to her.

Chloe watched as for a while as she went about her work, refilling coffee and making small talk. She sent Max another text telling her that she had gotten some food. Max responded that she would be there soon with about ten smiley faces. God what a nerd.

She looked outside, the diner had a great view of the lighthouse. It seemed so mysterious up there on the cliff. It was funny, it hadn’t felt like that when she was a kid. It had been a favorite place for them to hang out when they had been preteens. It hadn’t been too far for them to bike, and it was almost always empty during the day. Their pirate phase lasted so long because how could they not take inspiration from it? Their summers were filled with them playing around the cliff with their wooden swords, their stories, and adventures growing with each day.

Chloe pulled herself out of her thoughts, realizing that she had zoned out and that her coffee was getting cold. She poured about 7 little creamers and about 5 sugar packets into it, because who the fuck likes black coffee.

“Still have that sweet tooth huh?” Vanessa laughed as she sat down Chloe’s plate. And wow had Chloe missed a real meal after eating in Blackwell’s cafeteria for a month.

“I like my coffee to not taste like coffee is all,” Chloe said as she dumped about half a gallon of Maple syrup onto her waffle. 

“I still can’t believe you’re all grown up now, between you and Max- Oh speak of the devil.”

As a general rule, Chloe didn’t like dudes who wore muscle tees. They always looked dumb, like the guy looked at an average shirt and decided that it needed to be cut halfway down the sides so that everyone could see his stomach. She firmly believed that any guy that wore one was not worth talking to.

Max was though…. she was differently rocking it. She didn’t have a hat on today, and she wore a dark blue muscle tee that was showed a good portion of her ribs, though her workout bra covered enough that she wasn’t flashing anyone. Her jeans looked well worn with holes on the knees, and she had a blue plaid jacket tied around her waist.

Her heart skipped a beat, it was still surprising, seeing Max like this. As kids, she had always been the quiet one, the goody two shoes. Now here they were, Max all tattooed up and Chloe, a fucking nerd. Chloe watched as Max gave both Justin and Trevor high-fives and then a fist bump. Of course, Max knew them, she looked like a poster child for bad skaters.

“Chloe and Mom together again!” Max jokily said as she jumped into the booth.

“And Max, looking for a free meal.” Vanessa ruffled Max’s hair.

“ Nah, I'm treating Max for breakfast today,” Chloe said through her mouth full of food.

“No, you're not.” The older woman ruffled Chloe’s hair next. “This is my treat, after seeing you are all these years.”

“Thanks, Vanessa….” Chloe smiled up at her.

“Mmmm now do try to keep yourselves out of trouble alright ?”

“Yes ma’am” They sounded off together and then giggled to themselves. Max’s mom rolled her eyes at them and walked away to get back to work.

“Now that that's out of the way…” Max waited for a moment then lowered her voice. “Let's talk about your superpowers !”

“I don't have any explanation...So far anyway.” Chloe drank her coffee, “I tried looking into it last night, but I got nowhere. I also have no idea why I saw that fucking tornado.”

Max rubbed her chin, “Mmmm maybe you seen the future ?”

Chloe almost choked on her waffle, “Come on get real Max.” She scoffed “Who the hell do you think I am? Professor Trelawney?

“Sorry that you seeing the future is somehow too much for you Hermione,” Max rubbed her hands together. “Come on dude, I want to see you use your powers, I want to see some legit proof you can rewind time.”

“”I thought you believed me already?” Chloe mumbled looking at her half-eaten waffle.

“Hey,” Max put her hand over hers, “Of course I believe you. I just want to see my best friend be fucking awesome.”

Chloe turned her hand over to hold Max’s hand, “Sorry, this whole is all happening so fast...

Max grinned, “We'll start slow. Right here. Right Now.”

She grinned back, “Alright….Mm...I can tell you every single thing you have in your pockets.”

Max pulled back her hand, Chloe decided to ignore that she was a little disappointed about it, and started to mumbled to herself as she felt around her pockets. “I don't even know what's in my pockets, dude…. Let me see…Okay, I’m ready. Go ahead Chloe, dazzle me!”

Chloe put on her serious face, “You have a tube of glitter because you are always ready for arts and craft.”

Max pouted, “What? No….and shut up who doesn’t like arts and crafts ?”

She laughed, “New you may be all hot and covered in tattoos but your still my Max.” 

“Okay, you big flirt, tell me what’s in my pockets.”

She took a bite out of her waffle, “ No can do, I haven’t seen what’s in there yet.”

Max pouted again, “Oh so you haven't rewinded time or whatever? I guess I have to show you what’s in them….”She pulled everything out, her car keys that had a little skateboard keychain, an old leather wallet, a two dollar bill and a plastic ring.

“Max…. why do you have a two dollar bill and a plastic ring ?”

She shrugged, “I found them, I kept the dollar for luck and the ring because why the hell not?”

Chloe looked at her friend, “You are so weird sometimes. You know that?”

Max pushed her shoulder, “Like you are all that normal yourself, now come on I-”

She cut her friend off, eager to see her reaction when she'd ‘dazzles’ her. Chloe rewinded just a little.

“Go ahead Chloe, dazzle me!”

“Alright, prepared to be dazzled.” Chloe cracked her neck, “Item one, your car keys, which have a little skateboard keychain. Item two is your wallet, sidenote you really need a new one, let it die, Max. Item three is a two dollar bill because I guess you don’t have that Irish luck and need some more. And our last item is a plastic ring you found and kept because you are weird as hell.”

Max looked surprised before she pulled her pockets out, dropping everything on the table. Everything she said was of course on the table just like it had been before. “ Wowzers. I literally just got chills all over my neck.” She looked up at Chloe with a look of awe. “You really do have powers dude.”

Vanessa walked over Max’s food in hand, “Take that crap off the table, Max.”

Max blinked, “Yeah sorry, Mom.” She put the everything back into her pockets, and Vanessa sat the plate in front of her. Max started to stuff her face like she hadn’t seen food in weeks.

Max’s mom looked over at her so she wouldn’t have to tell her grown adult child to stop eating like that in public, “How's the food, Chloe?”

“As good as always.”

“Good.” She smiled at her then turned to glare at Max, “ I didn’t raise you in a barn Maxline.” She walked away again as Max slowed down.

“Man,” Max said as she drank her black coffee, like a crazy person, “I'm hungry like the wolf.”

She raised her eyebrows, “Clearly, Duran Duran.”

“Shut up, dude. Like I’m freaking out about what just happened, you have powers ! Real life powers !” Max jumped up and down a little like she always did when she was excited. “Show me more !”

Chloe grinned, “I will predict the future!”

Max’s eyes went wide, “No way! Wait didn’t you just say that you couldn’t do that ?”

“No, I said my dreams couldn’t do it. Now shhh I have to look around to see what stuff will happen if I’m going to impress you.”

“I’m already impressed but go ahead, ‘Oh powerful one.”

Vanessa walked past them and waved, she waved back, Max still eating. As Chloe watched as she continued walking around the counter. As she went past a drunk truck driver, he turned to look at her as she left, probably to look at her ass. He accidentally knocked over his mug, and it shattered on the ground.

“Oops!”

Vanessa jumped back, “Did you break another cup? Again? No more for you! Bill, can you get out here to clean this for me?”

“Sure thing boss lady!”

Just then the cop sitting at the counter radio came on, thought Chloe was too far away to hear it. The guy jumped up, Shoot, now I gotta leave my breakfast... Hey, where is my partner?” Chloe watched as a cop car drove past the diner with the sirens blaring. “That asshole!”

She heard Trevor start to yell at Justin, “You're a dick dude!” Chloe and Max both looked over to their booth and watched as Trevor slapped Justin on the cheek.

“Damn I guess Justin isn’t cool with the whole Dana thing….” Chloe wondered aloud.

“Don't slap me, bitch!” Justin reached over and grabbed Trevor’s jacket.

Vanessa put her hands on her hips, “Take that outside boys!”

“He started it!” The boys said together at once.

“Well, I'm finishing it! There will be no fighting in my diner!”

“Why the hell are those two fighting? They are like…. super bros.” Max watched the fight with Interest.

“Probably over this girl Dana, Trevor asked her out this morning.”

“Oh yeah, I know her. Shit no wonder they are fighting, Justin has been into her for a while.”

Chloe leaded back, “I forget that you went to Blackwell like right before I did.” 

Max shrugged, “I don’t miss it all that much honestly. I wasn’t close to most of the other students.”

The jukebox, which had been playing some god awful country song started to skip, and a distorted jangle of different songs started playing.

Cool, that should be enough to suitably impress Max. Chloe looked around while she rewinded time, it was so neat watching everything move backward.

“-Wait didn’t you just say that you couldn’t do that ?”

“ Oh but I shall!” Chloe rubbed her hands together. “Listen to my prophecy young Max.” Max leaned forward, eager to hear. “ First that drunk trucker drops his mug on the ground, the cop will get an alert on his radio and his partner leaves without him -”

“Ohhh this is getting good!”

“Shhh, Chloe The Magician isn’t done. Justin and Trevor start fighting and then finally the jukebox goes crazy.”

Max watched as Vanessa walked past them and waved to them, this time they both waved back. The drunk truck driver once again turned to look at her ass and knocked over his mug.

Vanessa jumped back, “Did you break another cup? Again? No more for you! Bill, can you get out here to clean this for me?”

“Sure thing boss lady!”

Then the cop sitting at the counter radio came on, “Shoot, now I gotta leave my breakfast... Hey, where is my partner? That asshole!”

“Bet he's off to go bust some pucks,” Max grinned at her.

“You're a dick dude!”

“Don't slap me, bitch!” Justin reached over and grabbed Trevor’s jacket.

Vanessa put her hands on her hips, “Take that outside boys!”

“Holy shit, it’s just like you said!” Max snapped her head around to the jukebox watching it like a hawk. Sure enough just a few moment later it started to spazz out. “She grabbed both of Chloe’s hands, "Dark Lady watch over me! ”

“ I’m not quite up to Banshee Queen levels of power I don’t think .”

“Chloe you can rewind time! That’s like the best power ever! You can do anything you wanted then rewind time, and boom, it's like it never happened!”

She thought about it, “ I mean I guess. I did use it to slap Victoria Chase.”

Max laughed, “ I’m sure she deserved it. But Maybe…. you made a move on me, and I just don’t know it!”

Chloe felt a blush creep up her neck, play it cool Price. So you may have kinda thought about it? You didn’t actually do it, and that’s what matters. “Yes, that's what I did.” When in doubt use sarcasm. 

Max didn’t comment on her embarrassment, “You can rewind time, we have to see how far it goes!

“Dude you are so right, I-”

“Fuck Chloe are you alright ?” Max grabbed a napkin from the table and quickly leaned over to pass it to her.

“What the shit?” She pressed the napkin to her nose and then held it up to see it.

It was covered in blood.

Chloe felt more blood start dripping and quickly put it back. She had never had nosebleeds before, Max had them a few times when they were kids, but she had always been free of them. She felt ok though, a smell headache but she had gotten one yesterday when she used her powers, so she just figured it was a side effect of it.

Fuck she had been so caught up with the side effect of her powers on the world that she didn’t even think of what they could do to her. But then again maybe this was just because she was starting out? Perhaps she needed to practice more, build up her strength.

“You alright there Chloe?” Max waved her hand in front of her face. She looked worried.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just lost in thought.”

“Are you sure? I mean nosebleeds and superpowers usually mean bad things…. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

Chloe laughed a little awkwardly, slightly embarrassed by the attention, “Max I’m good, I mean you’re right, I have these powers, why not use them and figure out what they can do. I swear I’ll stop if it starts hurting or anything.”

Max frowned a little but nodded, “ I know somewhere we can test you out.” She smiled, “I’ll be your annoying ass sidekick.”

“I guess you-”

“Hey listen!”

Chloe huffed and spoke loudly over Max’s giggling, “ Fucked it, your fired. Come on, Tony Hawk lets go to your secret hangout. I do have class in a couple hours.”

“Alright, off to the Max cave !” They both got up, Max started to head to the door, but Chloe had to stop for a moment because the motion had made her light-headed. She was lucky that Max didn’t notice, no doubt she would call the whole thing off if she knew that Chloe didn’t feel 110%. She wanted so badly for them to have a good morning, yesterday had been filled with so much shit for them both that they hadn’t really been able to hang out.

Her phone started to ring,“ Rockin'. Rockin' and rollin’.” She had really liked this ring tone last week but now, standing in front of a confused Max she was a little embarrassed. “Down to the beach I'm strollin'.” She looked at the caller ID but there was no name, the next line of the song was louder, “But the seagulls-”

“Hello, this is Chloe!” Yeah better to answer it then let every hear her very nerdy ringtone.

A girl answered in a firm tone, “This is Chloe Price right? The one from Blackwell?” The girl sounded familiar, but Chloe couldn’t place her.

“Uh yeah? Who is this ?”

“ Rachel Amber.”

Chloe had met her just once. She had been tired from moving into her dorm and hadn't been able to find any of her cooking shit or even a dollar for the vending machine. In a fit of anger and hunger, she had used her long ass noodle arms to reach into the vending machine grabbing five bags of Cheetos. When she had looked up from her theft there, she stood, covering her mouth her hands to stop herself from giggling. Chloe had felt her face catch on fire and started to beg her not to tell anyone, ‘Please it’s only my first day!’ But Rachel had just started laughing, and after a moment Chloe joined her. They had talked for a while, Chloe shared her prize and Rachel had given her tips on the other girls in the dorm. It had been nice. She had forgotten most of the suggestions but she differently remembered that Rachel had a wonderful laugh.

Chloe hadn’t seen her again after that. Actually from what Chloe understood no one had heard from Rachel Amber in a mouth. It had been the most significant story around the school, Rachel had been the most popular girl , invited to every party. And then she ghosted everyone at Blackwell. No one knew where she went, and she had only made one post on her facebook a week into her disappearance. A picture of her standing in an unknown forest location flicking off the viewer with both hands and a dark look on her face, the caption read, ‘ I won’t let you stop me.’ No one had known what or who the post had been about.

Needless to say, Chloe had no idea why she was calling her. “Rachel? Uhhh….Nice to hear from you?”

Max whispered in her ear, “Come on, walk and talk. My mom is getting kinda antsy.” She nodded to the exit.

“Don’t sound so disappointed to hear from me, I thought we got along fine…” 

“It’s just a little surprising is all,” Chloe mumbled thanks to Max for holding the door for her. “We only talked like, what? Once? Before you took off.” 

“I knew you would be interesting then and from what I hear it looks like I’m right.”

Max went to her car and for a moment Chloe felt terrible, this was supposed to be their morning together. But there had to be a reason that Rachel was calling her, she had been close to Nathan, close enough that there were more than a few rumors that the two had been dating. Maybe she knew something?

“I’m not interesting at all, I literally play video games and watch cartoons all day.”

Rachel laughed, Chloe felt stupidly proud of it, “ You also told on a very power drunk nutcase and rode off with a dropout all in one day.”

“Oh, so you heard about that?” Figures.

“I did, and that’s why I’m calling you.” Rachel’s voice became Serious, “You need to be careful Chloe.”

She scoffed, “I’m not scared of Nathan.”

“Would you listen? The Prescott’s are a fucking deep dark hole that you can’t beat. Take it from me, leave it be and get the fuck out of Arcadia Bay as fast as possible.”

Chloe started to pace along the side of the Two Whales, “ Look I don’t care what the fuck Nathan is in too, I’m going to bring him down. He almost killed my friend yesterday, I’m not going to let that slide!”

“You don’t understand! He-”

“ I don’t give a flying fuck what he has! He could have every fucking cop in this shit town working for him, and I’d still deck him in a heartbeat!”

Silence from the other side of the phone. “You really mean that don’t you ?”

“Hella yeah.”

A snort then a quiet sigh, “I wish I had a friend like you, Chloe….”

“Rachel?”

“Nathan….did something fucked up….to me, it’s why I left. I tried to find excuses for him, you know? We had been pretty close, the only one closer to him is fucking Victoria. But he betrayed me.”

A thought occurred to her,“Did he drug you?”

“How did you know?”

Chloe stopped and leaned her forehead against the brink wall of the diner. Nathan had probably done the same thing to Rachel as he had to Max. That was at least two girls that Nathan had drugged, who knows how many more there were? The thought made her sick. “He did the same thing to Max. Drugged her drink, she woke up in his bed with the fuck taking pictures of her…”

“Shit…. I thought I was the only one.”

“He needs to be stopped, Rachel….”

Rachel sighed, “That’s what I was trying to tell you, Chloe. He can’t be stopped, not while his dad is around. He’ll just keep throwing money until everything is sunshine and rainbows.”

“Look, I’m going to go after him no matter what you say.You can either help me out or fuck off.” 

A tried chuckle, “You sure are a tough one aren’t you?”

“Fuck yeah I am.”

“Look I won’t promise anything, but I’ll see what I can do.”

Chloe smiled, finally some good news. “That’s all I ask.”

“Oh and before I forget, how the hell do you know Max Caulfield?” Rachel sounded genuinely puzzled. “ She’s kinda rough, I won’t have guessed that was your type …. Of crowd.” 

Max had been trying to get a stray cat to let her pet him for about half of Chloe’s phone call after she had gotten bored of her car. Right now she was trying to feed him some food, but the cat didn’t seem very interested, probably because the food had been on the floor of her car for only god knows how long.

“Nah she’s cool, I’ve known her since we were kids actually.” 

“Huh, small world. Well, I’ll talk to you later Chloe.”

Chloe started to walk over Max, “Later.”

“Oh, are you done?” Max watched the cat run away with a sad look on her face.

“Yeah, I’ll tell you all about it on the way?” Chloe asked as she lowered herself into the car. Damn her height.

“Sure,” She started the car, “Off to the training montage!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was much longer than I thought it was going to? I had planned to have this scene and the junkyard as one chapter but you know stuff happens lmao 
> 
> So yeah Rachel! IS not dead! Idk where she is but she's off in the world doing god knows what. 
> 
> If you guys want to yell at me about things I'm over here, chloepleasestopdying on Tumblr


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took forever omg

Chloe and Max never needed a real hideout when they were younger. Max always spent her time over at her house and William, who watched them the most, had respected Chloe’s space. If anything her room was their hangout; they had spent countless hours in there. If she let herself she could remember every detail, the light blue walls her father painted for her when she was nine, their height measurements, the hole Max had accidentally put in the wall when she had gotten a little too excited and fling the door open too fast.

That room was gone, lost to her for years now. She had lost so much in that accident, her father, her mother for a long while, her home. Max. It had made her so angry, all that loss. Angry at her father for dying and her mother for grieving, angry at Max for forgetting her. Her grief had lessened as time went on, against all the odds. She wasn’t reminded of her dead father everywhere she went in Seattle and while she would never tell her mom, it had been a good idea to get away from it all. In time she forgave her father for dying and yeah, while her relationship with her mother wasn’t the greatest it was better than it had been a few years ago.

But that anger toward Max? She had never let in go, she held on it, and while the fire of rage faded as the years went on, it had warped into a deep hurt that Chloe sometimes feared wouldn’t heal. There had been countless nights where she couldn't sleep, and the only thing that ran through her mind was, Why? What had she done that was so awful that Max, the sweetest person ever, would drop her flat? Chloe knew that her friend was shy, but that never included her.

But it was only now, sitting in Max’s car, that she reminded herself that Max lost William too. Max had lost William and Chloe and Chloe’s room. She looked over at Max, who was parking the car very carefully, most likely because she was afraid of broken glass on the ground, and wondered how bad her home life had to be to hide out in an old forgotten junkyard.  

“Well, here we are! My home away from home….” Max jumped out of her car; her high spirit seemed a little fake to her as Max hadn’t taken the news that Nathan drugged other girls very well. Chloe knew her friend there was no doubt Max was feeling guilty, even though it wasn’t her fault. That was just how Max was.

She started to walk quickly to the back out of the lot. “Come on, Chloe!”

“What is this, a race?” Chloe didn’t need to walk that much faster, bless her long legs. She took a look around, but the junkyard looked like every junkyard she’d ever seen on tv. Ruined cars and old signs from closed stores surrounded her.

“Nah, there’s no way I’d win!” She hopped up on the hood of an old beaten up Wheeless car, letting her legs dangle in the air.  Max looked down and took a deep breath, “Alright so….. I may have brought you out here for something a bit more intense than telling the future.”

Chloe raised her eyebrow, “ Yeah?”

“You remember the argument that my dad and I had yesterday ?”

She frowned at the reminder. Knowing that her friend’s dad hit her, yes it had been undone, but it still counted in her mind, made her all kinds of pissed off. “Your dad is a fucking dick.”

Max nodded, “Totally.” She rubbed the back of her head and looked away, her face uncertain. “But...ummm…. He may have had a point ?”

Chloe huffed, “He hits you, Max! I don’t fucking care what you did.”

Her friend froze, “Hit me? How did you know-”

“So he has done it before? I knew it,” She started to pace. Her hands were hurting a little from her clenching them so tight but her scabbed over cuts from yesterday thankfully didn’t reopen. “I swear I’m going to fucking-”

“Chloe! Just stop for a moment. Please.” Max had her hands covering her face, but her voice sounded desperate. Chloe did as she asked, waiting for her to continue. After a moment Max lifted her hands, thankfully there were no tears though she looked tired, “You used your powers yesterday didn’t you?”

“He hit you, Max….” Chloe sighed and sat down on the car hood beside her, “No fucking way I’m letting that side.”

Max laughed, “You haven't changed, have you? Still going around defending me.”

She moved over so that their sides were touching, making Chloe’s heart jump for a moment. “I forgot how chivalrous you were.”

Chloe hoped her face wasn’t red with a blush and pulled Max into a sideways hug, “That’s me going around saving princess or whatever….” She trailed off and wondered how the hell to comfort someone whose dad was a complete asshole. “ Look about your dad-”

Max hopped off the car and sniffled a bit, rubbing her eyes with her arm. “I don’t want to talk about….that ok? We’re trying to figure out what happened to Kate not deal with my fucking mess.” Before Chloe could say anything else on the subject, Max continued, “I brought up the argument because …. Well…” Max reached into the deep pocket of her jeans. They must be men’s jeans to have such deep pockets, Chloe noted, she needed some for-

“Is that a fucking gun?!”

“Shhhhh!” Max swiped her head around as if someone was going to round the corner of broken cars. “God, don’t just yell that dude!”

“Oh sorry,”  Chloe whispered loudly and sarcastically, “That’s just my instinct on seeing a gun now. Fuck....You could get in a lot of trouble for this.”

“I know,” Max sighed, “Believe me I know, but the whole thing with Nathan was freaking me out, and I never meant for my dad even to know it was gone, ok? I stole it yesterday morning, but I chickened out on taking it into the school. And know that I know that Nathan also has a gun that he can and will fucking shoot me with? I need to defend myself, you know ?”

“Do you know how to use that thing though?” Chloe asked, watching as Max looked the small gun over. “I get wanting to defend yourself and all, but I don’t want you to shoot yourself in the gut or something….”

Max nodded firmly, too firmly for Chloe to believe her.  “ I’ve watched like million ‘How to’s on youtube.”

Chloe smacked her forehead with her palm, “ And you are supposed to be the responsible one in this relationship….”

“Whoa,” Max looked over at her with wide eyes, “ When did we decide that ?”  

“When I decided to jump off the roof of my house when I was ten ?”

She laughed, “Oh dude, I forgot about that!”

“Uh huh, so I’m going to need you to step up your responsible-ness a bit because I’m too rebellious to be the mom friend.”

Max rolled her eyes, “Anyway…. you can rewind time right? So I figured that I could practice with this,” she waved the gun, “and you can rewind and tell me what I did wrong or whatever until I’m the new Deadshot .”

Chloe thought it over, “Well….why not? I don’t think I can get you to Will Smith levels in one day though.”

Max sighed deeply, “But I’ll keep the hope alive. I hid some bullets for this thing here in the junkyard so my dad won’t find them. I’ll go and grab them but do you mind finding some shit for me to shoot at? I don’t want to shoot at the cars, knowing my luck the bullet will bounce off and hit me or something.”

“See, I’m glad you at least somewhat thought this through!”

Max flipped her off and walked away, leaving Chloe to find things for her friend to shoot at. Lucky it was easy enough to find a pile of old beer cans after only a minute or two of searching, it would have frustrating if she had to spend much time on something that simple.

As she waited for Max to return something caught her attention from the corner of her eye. Sitting over on top of the hill was a pure white rabbit. It was still and even from this distance, she could tell it had its eyes on her. They watched each other for a moment, and she felt a bit foolish because it was like she was in a staring contest with an animal. The rabbit lost as it made a small hop forward before it stared into her eyes again but it different somehow, like to was trying to tell her something.  

Her heart started to beat faster and faster, and she wasn’t feeling foolish anymore. Her body froze against her will, and the overwhelming sense of danger filled her completely. Someone was watching her, the primal part of her mind told her, someone was trying to hurt her. It kept building up inside her, and she wanted to yell and to scream, but her mouth wouldn’t open, she tried to run, but her legs were rooted to the ground, she tried to fight, but her arms wouldn’t move from her side.

This distress lasted a more few moments before it faded, leaving her breathless. She dropped to the ground as her knees gave out and then gagged, feeling ill. When she looked up the damn rabbit was still there, watching over her. It hopped forward again, and she scrambled back in fear. She wasn’t overcome with fear this time, but she could feel great sadness and deep longing. For what she didn’t know.   

The rabbit blinked at her and began to fade away into nothing. One moment it was there and the next it was gone, leaving Chloe sitting on the ground with a fast beating heart and clammy hands.

“Holy fucking shit…,” Chloe mumbled to herself, mostly to hear something other than the wind. “What the everloving fuck was that ?”

She looked at her phone, and while the whole thing had lasted only a minute or so, she felt like it had lasted hours. Chloe took a few deep breaths to calm herself and waited for her heart to stop beating so fast before she even tried to think about what just happened.

Now that she thought about it, the rabbit looked like the one from her dream, though to be fair to her all rabbits did look alike. But how and why was she see things from her dreams in the real world? She could put down the storm as seeing into the future, but this didn’t match what she knows of her powers but then again what did she know about her powers?  Maybe there was more to it than just time travel?

But why was it trying to scare her like this?  It had shown her the date of the storm, and that made it seem helpful but the Waking Nightmare spell it had just cased on her, she very much did not like. At all.

“What are you doing over there Chloe ?” Max called over the clearing. Chloe could hear her shake her box of bullets from where she was sitting. “Come on let's murder some beer cans!”

Chloe took a deep breath and gave herself a shake than stood up. No need to tell Max about the weird devil bunny, it would only cause her to worry.

As it turned out Max wasn’t that bad of a shot, whatever youtube videos she had watched had installed healthy respect for the weapon and how to grip it. But she was still a beginner and missed most of the first round of shots. For Max shooting about ten cans was over in about 20 minutes but for Chloe, it had lasted over an hour easily. Though she couldn’t be sure, her phone traveled with her through time but the clock as based online, so it kept resetting.

Chloe had thought rewinding over and over would be a little boring, Max wouldn’t remember it so she would have to keep repeating herself over and over. While It had taken a few rewinds to figure out the best way to show Max what she was doing wrong, a quick google had helped as well; it had overall been pretty fun.

She had started to feel light headed and a little dizzy after rewinding so much but she had ignored it as her head wasn’t hurting. It began to feel like it was getting worse, like the times she had gone over a day without eating. She decided to cut back on the rewinding for the rest of the day, maybe sit down for a while and eat something before going back to Blackwell. It would be fine; Max should be done shooting soon so she shouldn’t have to rewind anymore today.

“Fuck yeah! Sign me up for the Suicide Squad!” Max yelled as she shot the last of beer cans.

“Maybe you should rethink that bit?” Chloe thought aloud, “They are the bad guys which you are very much not. Plus I mean the movie wasn’t even all that good.”

“For the sack of our friendship, I’m going to ignore that.” Max wrapped her arm around her back, too short to reach her shoulders. “Besides you’re pretty much a superhero dude! I gotta keep up with you somehow right?”

Chloe was having a little bit of a problem feeling Max’s arm, her hands and seeing anything. Her head started pounding, her vision started to swim, and the junkyard began to blur into one big blob.

“Chloe? Oh, Chloe your nose…”

Was that Max? She could barely make out her voice over the cotton in her ears. “I don’t feel so good…”

“Chloe!”

Then Max was gone. Random images flashed before her eyes, but they were gone before she could make sense of them. They started to slow down, but it was like watching someone flip through a picture book. Flashes of the girl's bathroom, a pool of blood and then a coffin stuck out the most before the only thing she could see was the lighthouse and the colossal storm that hovered out in the bay.

Then nothing.

She awoke to Max’s voice, “Come on, wake up….You're freaking me out, Chloe…” She was laying on top of the hood of one of the cars, and she realized she either had her head in Max’s lap or Max carried around a heated pillow.  Chloe blinked opened her eyes, still groggy from passing out. She did, in fact, have her head in Max’s lap, Max had also taken off the jacket from around her hips and laid it on top of her like a blanket.

“Hey there Captain,” Max said with a small smile on her face, “You alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Chloe rolled off the car, running her hands over her clammy face. That weird dream and that damn rabbit were starting to freak her out. She had pushed it to the back of her mind, what use was there in worrying about something that wouldn't happen for a couple more days? But it was starting to feel like something almost wanted her to worry about it.

“Come on let's shoot some more,” Chloe gave Max an unconvincing smile. She felt shaken, a deep sense of worry sat within her.The worst thing was she couldn’t even start to explain it, she had no words for what happened, and she couldn’t just tell Max. This morning had been great, no need to ruin it by bringing up that apparently her powers came with some harmful side effects.   

“ Whoa slow down dude!” Max grabbed her hand with a small frown, “You just passed out Chloe take it easy.” She stared into her eyes for a moment like she knew that Chloe wasn’t alright and was too stubborn to show it. That was the downside to having someone know you so well. She had forgotten how annoying that was sometimes.“.....are you sure you feel ok?” She knew that look, that was the Max Caulfield Look Of Worry. She hated that look; it always made her feel like she was an awful person. Funny that she could still pull that off when she looked all punk now.

“I said I was fine,” Chloe jerked her hand away because Chloe Price only had two reactions to that Look and there was no way she could talk about this right now. Thus anger. She may not be ‘hardcore’ like her friend, but there was no way she was going to let herself be pitied, even if it was Max. She had had enough of that after her dad died.  “It’s my turn right?”

Max held her hands up in surrender, “Alright, if you say so….” She laid back down on the hood of the car and leaned her head back to look at the sky, “ But I say we chill for a minute, I don’t want you to shoot yourself.”

Chloe huffed and crossed her arms, “I’m not going to shoot myself, Max, I’m not an idiot.”  

Max continued to not look at her and instead seemed to be cloud watching. It was a shame she had left her sketchbook in her room because Max seemed pretty bad ass on the hood of the car. “Max come on…..Max…..Maxxxx”

Ignored. That always had been the typical Max reaction to when Chloe was too stubborn or she really didn’t want to get involved. Max had been able to be convinced to do just about anything, so she had gotten Max into all kinds of trouble as kids. Her ignoring Chloe was her go too when she was serious about not going along with her wild plans. It worked just about every time.

So Chloe knew that while she could get away without talking about what was making her all worried and antsy, there was no way Max was going to let her off the hook all the way. With a sigh, she hopped up on the hood as well, though she didn’t lay down.

Maybe Max had a point about resting, it a beautiful day out and from where the car was sitting they were able to see the open field next to the junkyard. It was soothing even if nature hadn’t ever been her thing. She did feel a bit better, though there was no way she would tell Max that she had been right.

“This was fun, scary and stupid, but fun,” Max said after a few minutes. She turned her head look up at her with a small frown, “I mean you did kinda freak me out there dude.”

Chloe looked away and rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. “I said I was fine, Max.” That came out a little harsher than she intended. She was just trying to be an asshole today wasn’t she?

But Max laughed, and Chloe looked at her in surprise, “Only you would say you were fine after passing out from using your actual fucking superpowers too much.But alright….” She rolled off the hood of the car. She walked around to Chloe and pulled the gun out of her pocket, “I feel like you are now chill enough to lock and load.” Max pressed the gun into her hands.

“Oh shit…” Chloe had never held a gun before and while she did say she wanted to shoot and had been somewhat ok with Max shooting one around her, now that she was carrying one she more than a little uncomfortable. Even if she wasn’t going to shoot herself with it.  

“I know right?” Max kept her hands over Chloe’s, keeping the gun pointed at the ground. “I freaked out when I first held it too, but you can handle this.” She let go and took a step back, “I mean you have super powers, Chloe! What’s a gun to that?”

“Yeah...Yeah, your right!” She kept the gun pointed to the ground and tried to get used to the feel of holding it. “I have the power of a whole army!”

Max grinned at her, “That’s the spirit dude, let’s kill some cans!” She wrapped her arm around Chloe’s waist started to head over to their shooting range setup. “Come on, lets-”

“Well, will you look at that? It’s Xena and Gabrielle,” said an unknown man from behind them. He looked to Chloe like he belonged on an episode of Law and Order with his tattooed neck and trashy beard. Max must have known him judging by her fast reaction of swinging around quickly and pushed Chloe behind her in the same motion. “Or should I say, Bonnie and Clyde ?”

“What do you want Frank?” Max glared at him as she crossed her arms.  

Chloe took a step back, anyone who made Max that mad was terrible news. She had put the gun behind her back on instinct when she heard him and now decided that it was a good idea to keep it hidden, it was a stolen gun after all.

“ Oh, sorry, Max.” Frank held his hands up, “Don't let me get in the way of your bonding.” She did not appreciate the air quotes and thick sarcasm on the word ‘bonding.’  “I heard the gunshots….It's cute that you're playing with guns. Just like me at your age.”

Max huffed, “I’m nothing like you asshole.”

Frank just raised his eyebrows at her, “We both need money right? The way I hear it you’ve been dying to leave town and I know a way for that to happen….”

Max rolled her eyes, “Fuck off man.” She looked over to Chloe and nodded, “Lets jet.”

“It’s fast money, Max...” For the first time, he looked over to Chloe, who was standing pretty awkwardly, that what happens when you are trying to hide a gun but are scared of shooting yourself in the ass. “ What are you hiding there kid?” He took a step forward her, “Let me see!”

“Fuck off man,” Chloe took a massive step back.

Frank pointed at her, “Listen here girly-”

“Where the fuck did you get that?” Max growled at him. This was madder than Chloe had ever seen her, it looked like she was about to attack him with her damn teeth.

He jerked his hand out of sight and into his pocket. “A friend, not that’s any of your business.”

 “Bullshit!” Max took a step toward him, “Where did you get it?”

Frank didn’t back down, “Calm down, would you? It was a gift.”

“Like Kate would have given you a fucking gift?” Max went to grab his wrist, “You fucking stole it didn’t you ? Give it -”

Frank pulled out a switchblade, and it opened within a few inches of Max’s cheek, “You better step back before you regret it.”

Chloe’s hands shook, but she raised the gun in front of her. If something went wrong she could rewind, but first, she had to try to protect Max and if that meant shooting someone she would. Even if even the thought of it made her a little sick.  “Get…” That made them both look over at her, and both blinked in surprise. “Get away from her.” She gripped the gun with white knuckles, “Now.”  

Frank took the knife away from Max’s face but didn’t put it away, “ You aren't going to shoot me, kid.”

“I will if you don’t get away from her.” She tried to keep her face even but her heart was beating out of control, holy fuck she was about to shoot someone.

After a moment Frank pushed to blade closed and took a step back, “Alright, fine.” He looked at  Max with a frown, “Don’t think this conversation is over, I’m the only way out of this town, and sooner or later you’ll realize that.”

They both stood still until he disappeared out of sight into the junkyard. Max then turned to her and pulled her into a tight hug; their height difference made it a little weird since Max was right at boob level.Still, at this moment she could only give it a passing thought since she, you know, almost shot someone.

“Holy shit Chloe…” Max mumbled into her chest; she pulled away just enough that her face wasn't being smothered. “Thank you for standing up me, I…. I appreciate it.”

“Like I was going to sit by and let someone threaten you ?” Chloe squeezed Max and stepped back. Her heart was starting to slow, the more she thought about it, the more it freaks her out. She almost shot someone, even if he was an ass, she could have killed him! She gave the gun to Max, “I think I’m done with guns for the day….”

Max nodded, “I get it, dude.” She checked the time, “We’ve got a little bit more of time before you have class right? Let’s walk the train tracks! I can drive us down the road a bit ?”

Chloe smiled, “ Sure that sounds cool.”  They made their way to Max’s car; thankfully they didn’t run into Frank as he had already left. It was a short ride to the old station, only a couple of minutes. They rode in silence, but Chloe didn’t mind. She had so much stuff going on inside her head that it was all starting to give her a headache.

She divided everything into her two main problems, The Kate Mystery and The Storm/Powers Mystery.

Here is what she knew so far. Kate had gone to a party where something awful had happened to her. What exactly happened was still unknown, but Max had found Plan B in her room, and if Kate thought she needed that, then there was someone out there who knew more about that night.

Max had said that Kate didn’t sleep around and Kate had been depressed afterword, depressed enough she killed herself. To Chloe, it looked like Kate could have been raped. Though then again they could be looking for this guy she had told Max about?

Still, if Kate had been raped Nathan was shaping up to be head suspect. He had drugged Max and Rachel Amber and who knows how many others. They were going to have to find some way to get dirt on him; his family was way too rich to just go to the cops. He would be out of jail in no time.

Also, Frank had Kate’s bracelet. What that meant she had no idea. She decided to put that on the backburner for now since she had to talk to Max about him still.  

Now to problem two, The Storm. She knew that the storm was coming on Friday.

What time Friday? No idea. Why did she keep seeing this storm? No idea. What was the rabbit? No idea. Why did the rabbit make her feel all that dark shit? No idea. Where did her powers come from? No idea. Would they last? No idea.

Chloe leaned her head back on Max’s headrest, closed her eyes and sighed deeply. The powers were cool, but man did she wish they had come with a manual.

“You alright?” Max asked as she stopped the car.

“Just trying to organize all the bullshit” Chloe rubbed her eyes and stepped out of the car,  “A lot of stuff is happening all at once.”  

Max nodded, “Yeah no shit….I can’t believe you pulled a gun on Frank.”

They walked down the hill and reached the train tracks. It had been years since Chloe had stepped on some, she had heard a few trains pass while they were at the junkyard but she hadn’t walked over to the tracks. A line of them had been close to Chloe’s house when they were kids, on the few days they did play around outside they would walk down to them, and put coins on the tracks so that the trains would flatten them when they passed. They each had had a couple of spikes that had shaken loose and had brought home; their mom’s hadn’t like that too much. She and Max had even walked across town on them one day when her dad had kicked them out of the house.

They walked down the tracks for a while, Chloe spoke up, voice hesitant, “ I’m happy I didn’t have to shoot Frank .”

“Me neither Chloe, you don’t need that shit…” Max stepped up on the rail, balancing effortlessly.

Chloe was a little jealous of the fact she made it seem so easy, she stepped up on the rail too and made it a couple of feet before Max grabbed her hand to balance her out. “Don’t fall,” she cautioned.

“It’s fine,” Chloe squeezed her hand “I’ll rewind before you can see me embarrass myself.”

Max laughed, “Just because I won’t see it doesn’t mean I won’t know it happened.” She smiled, “I’m glad you're back Chloe.”   

“Me too Max.” They let go of each other's hand and continued walking in silence. While Chloe didn’t want this nice mood to end, she had to ask, “Max why the hell is a loser like Frank trying to talk to you? I mean it sounds like he wanted to hire you or something.”

Max stopped walking and ran her hand through her hair, “Let’s sit down and we’ll talk alright?” She put her jacket on the rail and laid down, patting the ground next to her. Chloe shrugged and laid down next to her only a couple of inches apart.

They stared up at the bright sky for a moment, and Chloe was stuck at how different it was out here. She couldn’t hear any cars or people just the sound of wind going through the trees. She was going to have to rethink her dislike of the outdoors.

“It’s like another world out here,” Max whispered. “I wish I could stay out here forever sometimes….”

“Maybe we could build that kickass tree fort that we always talked about?”

She smiled, “I don’t think we’ll be able to put a pool in a tree, Chloe.” Her smile disappeared, “I am going to need a new hang out, I sure as hell am not running into Frank if I don’t need to.”

“Max…”Chloe reached over to hold her hand, “Max that dude scared the shit out of me.”  

“I know, and I’m sorry. Frank is an ass who thinks he’s a lot more hardcore then he is.” Max snorted, “I’ve seen him hold his dog through a thunderstorm Chloe. All he cares about is that dog and making money.”

“Max…” Chloe sat up and frowned, “I almost shot him. Like I was for real going to shoot him if he didn’t back off. And I just….” How did she put this without making it seem like she wouldn’t have Max’s back? “I can rewind time and yeah maybe no one else remembers, but I do. I don’t want to do something like that if I don’t have to.”   

Shit were these tears in her eyes? She rubbed her eyes with her arm, “I seen you get shot already Max, I don’t want to see something like that again.”

“Ok, Chloe.”She felt Max’s hand rub her side. “No gun. I’ll leave it in the car and put it back tonight alright?”

“You don’t have to give back yet….I mean you were right about Nathan maybe just leave it in your car? You can put it back after everything dies down.”

“Deal.”

Chloe looked down at Max, “Now, tell me exactly what's going on between you and this Frank asshole.”

Max rolled her eyes, “Frank Bowers is just a two-bit dealer, my weed dealer actually. He’s the main dealer in town, so I have to buy from him if I want to smoke. I’ve known him for a couple of years; we used to tight.”

Chloe couldn’t help the face of disgust, “You don’t mean that you….”

“I what?” Max glanced up, “Oh gross Chloe!” She pushed at her side and Chloe had to grab the rails to keep from falling. “Just because I’m bi doesn't mean I sleep with men twice my age. He wants me to sell for him. I told him no way but he’ been insistent which I don’t get, he’s got other deals in the school already.”

“That's it?”

“No.” Max’s voice harden. “Now it isn’t. I want to know why the hell that dick had Kate’s bracelet.”

“Could she had given it to him? Did they hang out?”

Max shook her head, “Not that I know of? Kate wasn’t really into the hardcore party scene, and she would never sell. Kate loved that bracelet; she wore it all the time….I remember it going missing and asking about a week or two after the party, but she said she just didn’t want to eare it anymore.”

“We’ll keep an eye out on this guy,” She patted Max head, “Him and Nathan.”

Max mumbled, “Fucking Nathan,” under her breath. “ It’s nice to be able to talk to someone about all this crazy shit….Everyone just gave me pitiful looks when I tried to talk about it. Even if it’s been years, it’s like no time has passed you know?” Max patted the closet part of Chloe that she could see from her angle, her shoes, “You and Kate would have been best friends.”

“Yeah ?” Chloe felt honored.

“Yeah, she was kinda quiet but kind. She loved to draw as you do.” Max smiled at the thought, “Though she wanted to do kids books, you were always a bit more… mature than that.”  

“Hey!” Chloe bumped Max’s side with her foot, “I told you those were figure drawings, and I stand by that.”

Max held her hands up in surrender. After a moment she then started to whisper, “Then why did they have-” Only to shriek in laughter as Chloe picked up some dirt and tossed it on her head. “Alright alright sorry dude.” She shook her head like a dog.

They sat in silence again. This was becoming their new thing it seemed, sitting in silence. Chloe wasn’t upset by it; it was nice indeed. With all the crazy shit going on it was nice to just exist for a while.

“Railroad tracks always make me feel better…”Max whispered like she was afraid to break this calm, “ The romance of travel and movement...the sound of the train whistle at night…”

“Look at the beat poet here. That was Kerouac right?”

“Yeah, I may have dropped out, but that doesn’t mean I can’t read.” Max looked up at her, “You always hated poetry, I’m surprised you knew him.”

Chloe rolled her eyes, “Art school dude.” She stood up to stretch out her legs, “Even if I’m there for mainly 2d art they still make you do all that English stuff.” Chloe pulled out her phone so that she could take some pictures of the woods. They would make beautiful screensavers, better than the Thor ones she had now.  

“Oh come on Chloe, poetry is like a window to the soul!” Max spoke louder so Chloe could hear her. “Anyone can do it that’s what makes it so cool, like umm oh! Mary Frye, she had never written any poetry right? But then she met-”

Chloe let her words pass through one ear and out the other, god knows Max was a bit of a nerd about this kind of thing. She had sat through many a ramble in her time. Max may be quiet, but when she got started, it could be hard to get her to stop.

“Anyway, her poem goes like this -

_Do not stand at my grave and weep_

_I am not there._

_I do not sleep.”_

Chloe froze, she had heard this before, but where?

Max continued unaware,

_“I am a thousand winds that blow._

_I am the diamond glints on snow._

_I am the sunlight on ripened grain.”_

Her head started to pound again, as Max and the woods around them began to fade in and out. She closed her eyes hoping that it would help her stay upright. What was wrong with her that this kept happening? Was she going to pass out again? Max’s voice was gone, and yet she could still hear that goddamn poem, so who the hell was talking?

_“I am the gentle autumn’s rain._

_When you awaken in the morning’s hush,”_

_I am the swift uplifting rush_

_Of quiet birds in circled flight.”_

She couldn’t handle her head hurting like this, not now, not after all that had happened.  Her fears about stumbling came true but luckily her mom was there to catch her by hugging her close. Usually, she would have fought against it, she had never been much of a hugger, but right now she needed it even if she couldn’t bring herself to ask for it.  She leaned into her mother, thankful that she was here.

The preacher continued speaking, “I am the soft stars that shine at night.

_Do not stand at my grave and cry;_

_I am not there._

_I did not die.”_

Chloe felt the tears on her face, though she didn’t know when she started crying. Was it when the preacher had started reading the poem or during? Or maybe she had just never stopped crying. She tried to stop but she could n’t, she had always hated it when people saw her cry, and she was more than aware of the others watching her.

But it wasn’t like crying at a funeral was that unusual right?

Her mother must have noticed her trying to hold it together as she kissed her side of her head and whispered into her ear, “ It’s alright sweetheart, just let it out.”

Chloe felt her lips wobbled and her eyes water,  and knew that if she started, she wouldn't be able to stop.It wouldn’t be pretty crying either, she would sob and yall and get angry because that’s what she did when she was grieving, but by god, she wouldn’t have a fit here. She shook her head like a child, “Oh Chloe,” her mother’s voice broke, “I’m right here honey. You hear me, Chloe?”

She started to lose it then, she gasped for air and held on to her mother for dear life as she started sobbing. She didn’t care then about the others watching her or the preacher still speaking about a life cut short. Nothing mattered right then because -  

“Chloe? What’s wrong? ”

Her mother’s warmth faded away, and she was alone at the bottom of the hill lighthouse leading up to the lighthouse. The skies were dark as night even though it was midday and it was pouring rain, but she didn’t care. She didn’t care about a lot of things right now. She walked to the top of the hill and saw the storm, but she couldn’t bring herself to care about it at all, not even as it inched closer and closer to the town.  

“Chloe!”

Was that Max? That was impossible, how the fuck could Max be here?

The sound of a train horn close by jerked her out if her thoughts. She blinked through the rain and wind, and she was back at the train tracks again. What the fuck had that been?

“Chloe help!”

She jumped, Max’s voice was more desperate than she ever remembered hearing it. Max was standing in an awkward position, and she was pulling at her leg desperately, her face pale.

“My foots stuck!”

She pushed whatever that vision away and ran over to her, “Hold on Max!”  They pulled at Max’s leg but when the rail had switched directions it had closed down on her boot. She couldn’t even take the damn thing off because of it was it was so tight, and she couldn’t get the right angle. They both heard the train horn again, closer this time. Too close for comfort. They looked down at Max’s trapped leg, Max’s face paled further, and her eyes went wide with fear.

The train came around the turn about a mile away and while she didn’t know much about trains she did know that most properly weren't able to stop suddenly without crashing.

Fuck.

She rewinded as far back as she could, but that wasn’t far only about two minutes when the vision had stopped. She had to get that boot off, but there wasn’t anything around to help them, they had walked pretty far from where they parked the car. She would just have to keep rewinding.

Chloe took off running down the track, it hurt her deeply to hear Max’s yelling about the train behind her when it came around the track but she had to hurry, she had no idea how many rewinds she would get before she’d pass out. She rewinded and ran again. And again.

Even with her long legs, it took a couple of rewinds to reach the car. She was breathing in heavy pants now, unused to doing any exercise. She immediately started to tear Max’s car apart looking for something, anything,  that would help her. It took two more rewinds that she found the crowbar in the back.

Her headache was back, no surprise there, but she ignored it and pushed on. Her lungs were on fire, and her ribs felt like they were going to break out of her chest, but she kept running. Max was in danger; she repeated to herself as she rewinded again and her nose started bleeding, she needs me.

As she came closer she could hear Max’s yelling, “Chloe please, I’m stuck !” She heard Max yell out over and over as she ran and it hurt her deeply each time. She’d watch the train come down the track and heard her best friend’s blood-chilling scream of fear again and again. Chloe knew without a doubt that she was going to have nightmares of this.

It took her longer to get back, but she’d finally reached Max and quickly rewinded again even though she felt like her head was going to come apart. Chloe then realized that her rewinds were getting shorter and shorter each time. While she had been able to rewind about two minutes before the train came around the corner she now she couldn’t rewind past it.

It was no wonder that Max was pale and her voice was rough like she had been screaming, she had been alone thinking that Chloe had disappeared. 

“Chloe?” Max’s face was now wet with tears. “ Help I’m stuck!”

“Don’t worry Max!”Chloe wedged the crowbar into the rail and tried to push it open, “I got you!” But Chloe wasn’t the strongest of people, and the rail wasn’t something to be moved easily. No matter how much she pushed, the track stayed close.

“Oh fuck, fuck, fuck, I’m fucking dead!” Max froze as she looked up at the train.

“The hell you are!” Chloe grabbed Max’s face and glared into her eyes, “I’m not letting you die, Caulfield, you hear me ?”

Max nodded, “Hear you.”

Chloe gripped the crowbar again, “Pull as hard as you can on three.”

The train was entirely around the corner now.   

“One.”

The train blew its horn.

“Two”

She tried to remember that if this didn’t work, she could try again but she honestly didn’t know how many rewinds she had in her.

“Three!”

Chloe pushed down on the crowbar again, leaned her body against it as Max pulled at her foot as hard as she could. For a moment Chloe was afraid that it wouldn’t work and she would have to rewind all the way to the car again. Then Max’s foot managed to slip free of her boot; the sudden freedom made her stumbled backward.

“Max!” Chloe grabbed her arm and pulled her over. She pulled so hard that they fell backward off the track in a pile of flailing limbs. Chloe ended up on the bottom and Max on top clenching to her tightly. She ignored the sharp elbow in her ribs.

The train flew by and the noise making Chloe’s head, pounding already from all the rewinds, ring. Max started to laugh, loudly and with a hint of hysteria.

“Are you alright Max?”

“You saved my life. Again!” Max sat up and grinned down at her. “We're -” Her face dropped, “Chloe are you alright?”

“Me? You're the one that almost got hit by a train!” Chloe decided to stay on the ground; her legs were killing her.

“It was a close call but Chloe your nose is bleeding again….” Max frowned, “You had to rewind didn’t you?”

Chloe nodded, “Yeah but was worth it Max.”

Max stared at her for a moment, “Chloe before you disappeared you kind of …..froze. It freaked me out.”

Chloe stared up at the sky how to explain the vision she had?

“You remember how I told you about that storm? It was kinda like that, but I knew what was going on.” Chloe huffed, that made no sense at all. “Like ok, that poem you were talking about it? A preacher was reading it at a funeral, but I don’t know whose it was, well I knew whose it was in the dream, but now I don’t. Then I was at the lighthouse again, and I saw the storm again.”  

Her friend frowned “ The storm again? Maybe your powers are connected to the snow from yesterday, fuck maybe it’s even all connected to this storm that’s going to hit the bay.”

“Connected? Max all this shit is so fucking random…” She decided to not bring up the weird ass bunny, no need for ghost stories. “ It’s probably nothing….”

Max rolled her eyes at her, “You get these powers, and all of the sudden weird stuff starts to happen? I mean you saved my life, twice, you don’t think that did something to like, the timeline or whatever?”

Chloe huffed,“I don’t think saving your life would somehow make a superstorm. If anything it would destroy time Max.”

Max shrugged, “I don’t know man, have you ever changed history before? Who knows what kind of shit could happen.Oh! Like that episode of Doctor Who! Where Rose saves her dad ?”

“I think you’re still high Max. Let's not base our lives on a tv show.”

“Oh fine….But don’t worry Chloe I’ll be your companion.” Chloe could only assume that Max tried winked at her, but she had failed pretty hard at it. 

“Max,” Chloe sat up so they could be close to eye level. “I have these powers, but I still don’t know all the downsides and some of the stuff that is happening to me? It’s starting to freak me out a little. I don’t even know how long they will last….”

Max scooted closer so she could hold Chloe’s hand, “That’s alright Chloe, even if your powers don’t last, we will. I’ll help you any way I can as long as you’ll let me, okay?”

“Yeah,” Chloe squeezed Max’s hand, “Alright.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah so as you guys can see I'm changing stuff that's not swap! Stuff. Like I said this is also a fix it fic.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this is so short! And also late! I'm pretty busy, and stuff and this Ch. was super hard for me to do, even though it's super short lol

Chloe had never done too great at school. Even before her father died, she hadn’t really been a ‘Model student.’ The work had always been easy, much too easy for it to keep her attention for long. So in school, she had spent more of her time teaching Max math than she had actually worked.

After she moved, she hadn’t had the motivation to study hard for school. She had gone through the motions, but she hadn’t ever worked on it. After all, what did school really matter anyway? So she instead skipped homework to play video games and always wrote her essays at the last moment because she stayed up late watching tv. Honestly, she was surprised that she managed the keep a B average. She never had a great relationship with any of her teachers. Either they hated her work ethic or pitied her, which made her act out in retaliation. Her mother has taken grounded her a few times because of her outbursts in class.

When she started at Blackwell, she had been happy to be able to set up her own classes and so far most of them had been working out. Her 2D art classes were her favorite with science a close second, but while she had been looking forward to her photography class, it had quickly fallen to her least favorite. Between Victoria and her goons it would have been unfortunate but with adding  Mr.Jefferson? It was almost unbearable. He probably didn’t even have a teaching degree! He spent more time talking about himself than anything else, and he kept trying to embarrass students. Sure he may be successful, but that didn’t make him a teacher.

Chloe rubbed her head as she walked toward her class, she really didn’t want to deal with him after else today after this morning. Max had dropped her off with only enough time to grab her books and a promise to swing by tomorrow. Now though Chloe wished that she had just skipped class.

Mr.Jefferson was standing outside of his classroom as usual as he apparently thought it made the kids like him more. What was unusual was that he was in a rather heated conversation with Taylor Christensen.  He was clearly annoyed with the slightly pale Taylor and was trying to speak softly, but Chloe could still hear him. “Stop overreacting, you are ridiculous!”

Only a little surprised that he would be so rude to a student, Chloe decided to listen in and walked passed them and tried to not act suspiciously as she stood by the water fountain.  

Taylor, however, didn’t lower her voice at all, “Overreacting? I’m afraid of going to class!” 

Jefferson huffed and rolled his eyes, “ Don’t overreact. I’m starting to think that this is your own way of getting attention.” He folded his arms and glared at her, “Maybe you want out of Miss.Chase’s shadow?” 

 

She crossed her arms and looked away, “That's really fucked up, Mr. Jefferson.” Taylor sniffled a little, “ God….You really don't get it…. that or you just don’t care.” 

He put his hand on her shoulder, “Look just drop it alright? I won’t -”  

Taylor jerked back and glared at him, “Drop it? No!” She was almost shouting, “No way, he has an actual fucking gun-”   

 

“Miss Christensen that is enough!” Jefferson spoke over her and then said in a lower but no less angry voice, “Stop this. Now.”  

 

Taylor’s eyes started to water “ Fine.” She rubbed her arm across her face, “I won’t be coming to class today.” She turned and started off to the dorms at almost a run. Chloe could hear her start sobbing.

She said that ‘he has a gun’ which meant she had to be talking about Nathan….Chloe had overheard her say that he was creeping her out and it must have gotten out that Chloe had seen him with a gun, even if the school hadn’t actually done anything. Looked like because of that Taylor wasn’t waiting for Victoria to talk to him and wanted Jefferson to do something about him now. Of course, Jefferson was useless though, he tended to ignore the problems with his students.

But more importantly Chloe had to speak with Taylor, it was possible that she knew something that could help tie Nathan to Kate or hopefully at least something to get him locked up.

 

“You look worried...is everything okay?” Chloe jumped at Jefferson’s voice. He was trying and failing, to sound worried.  

 

Chloe recovered fast,“ Well actually, just between you and me,”  she whispered, “I'm worried about Nathan Prescott.” She watched as his face darkened. God what an asshole.

“I see.” Jefferson rubbed his forehead,“ Principal Wells told me about what you said happened-”

Chloe cut him off, “ What I said happened? No, that asshole really did a gun in the bathroom yesterday.” 

He sighed, “ That is a serious accusation, and you can’t just throw those around. You need to start thinking about yourself.” 

She shorted, “ Think about myself? I am thinking about myself! I don’t want to go to a school with a guy who has a gun.” She ran her hand through her hair and mumbled, mostly to herself, “I know that I can be a dick sometimes, but I would never make something like this up.” 

 

He softened his voice, Chloe wanted to hit him because he just seemed fake and slimy, “I’d hope you wouldn't and I know it's easy to point fingers but let's say…. Bradshaw had has claimed you might be a pot dealer, should I believe him?”

“Oh that's just great, he’s going around telling people that ?”

“As I said Chloe, this kind of accusation can be harmful-”

She had to resist stomping her foot, “The difference is that I’m not a pot dealer and even if I were it would be a lot hard to kill people with pot compared to a fucking gun!”  

Jefferson’s face darken again with her raised voice, “Chloe I am giving you a fair warning. I will not allow such slander of my students, I will have to go to Principal Wells.”

Chloe had a bit of a temper. She knew it, and everyone else knew it. The only reason that she didn’t completely blow up on Jefferson right then and there was that she was still too tried by her adventures in the junkyard.

Instead, she merely said, “Fuck you asshole,” and walked away. The twin middle fingers were probably a bad idea, but it felt good so she’d deal with that later. Plus her mom would probably agree that he was an asshole, right?

As Chloe stomped her way back to her dorm, she thought of what she would do now that she had the day off. After all, if she were going to skip one class, it would make sense to skip all of them.

On one hand, she could be productive, hunt down Taylor and see what she knew, maybe talk to some of the kids around the school to see if anyone was at Kate’s last party.

On the other hand, she was tried and had a monster headache. All she wanted right now was her bed, maybe after a nap, she could text Max, and they could hang out, without almost dying.

But wait was that too needy? They had spent all morning together, after all, maybe Max waited some time alone? Fuck this line of thought wasn’t great for her headache at all. She’ll take the nape see what happens.

When she stepped into her room she realized that she had forgotten that Nathan had recked her room, fuck that had only been that morning. Her room was still filled with the smell of paint, and her bed still had her ripped up poster on it.

Fuck, she didn’t want to deal with this right now. Chloe grabbed her fan and wedged it in her doorway, trying to create an airflow since the air conditioning was from the last century. She wished she could just open her window, but of course, Blackwell had them sealed shut.

She kicked her shoes off and took some aspirin, hoping that her headache would fade. Then she laid down with her eyes closed though she knew that there was no way she could actually fall asleep.

It helped, after all the craziness, it just lay there for a bit.

Chloe didn’t know how long she laid there, she had gotten to that point where she wasn’t sure that she had fallen asleep or not. It could have been minutes or hours. But suddenly she was jerked awake by someone’s argument up the hall.

She couldn’t make out what they were saying, but Chloe was not having someone yelling up and down the dorms when she was trying to rest. She stood up, carefully as her headache was still very much alive, and made her way down the hall.

The yelling was coming from Victoria’s room, which was a surprise since there was no way that Victoria wasn’t in class. Now that she was closer she could tell that one of the pair was a man, which pissed off Chloe even more as being woken up was terrible but woken up by boyfriend problems? Even worse.

“What the fuck are you trying to do bitch? I own this school, I own this shit hole of a fucking town!”

Wait was that Nathan? What the fuck? Was he arguing with Victoria? Chloe pressed her head to the door, though with the way they were yelling it wasn’t that hard to hear them.

“I don’t care what your daddy owns! You’re sick in the fucking head Nathan!”

No, not Victoria, Taylor. Nathan must have heard about what happened in the hall earlier, Taylor wasn’t one you could call discreet.

“Yeah, maybe I am, but you’re just Victoria’s little toy! Always following her around for scaps -“

“Like you’re one to talk! You were Rachel’s toy, and you creeped her out so much she left the damn state! And you know what? Fuck you and your fucking club! I bet the principal would love to hear about how goes on-“

“You fucking bitch!” Chloe then heard a loud thump and a grunt of pain. “You think you can control me? No one will even miss you, you’re just a fucking shadow!”

She went to the door immediately but before she could take even a step inside Nathan had already shot Taylor.  Chloe froze, she couldn’t help it. Nathan was standing with a shaking gun pointed at a body, she couldn’t think of it as Taylor.

She lifted up her hand and if her head hurt before it was nothing compared to this. Chloe tried, tried to push time back as far as possible, but it just wasn’t working like before. Slowly, ever so slowly Taylor’s body rises from the floor. Every moment was like pulling blood from a stone, time had no meaning like this of course, but it certainly felt like forever.

God watching someone get unshot in super slow Motion was going to give her nightmares. It would fit right in with Max’s screams of fear from the train tracks.

Her nose was bleeding again, badly, she could feel it drip on to her shirt.

Finally, the bullet was back in Nathan's gun. She pushed just a bit more and walked forward. This too was a hard struggle, every step was like fighting gravity and time. Then when she went to grab Nathan’s gun time snapped out of her control completely.

“Where the fuck did you come from?” Nathan yelled as he pointed his shaking gun right at Chloe.

Chloe tried to pushing time again, but it wouldn’t bend to her. Guess there is a limit to how much she could so, real big shame that she found what it was right now when a nutjob had a gun pointed at her.

“I live here asshole.” Her mom was right, she really did need to work on her backtalk.

“I’ll shoot you, and that bitch!” Nathan’s eyes were wild, his mouth twisted into a frown. He was shaking all over and looked jumpy, not good when one was holding a gun.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, what did she do? She knew Nathan was capable of shooting them, she’s seen him kill Max and Taylor already. And this time she wouldn’t have her powers to back herself up.   

“Chloe?” Taylor sounded shocked and terrified, no surprise there. Nathan must have pushed her, quite hard as there was a crack in the drywall, and that thump was her hitting the wall behind Victoria’s bed. Taylor seemed out of it was for the better.

“It’s alright Taylor,” Chloe tried to soothe her, “Just stay there I’ll handle this.” Taylor just closed her eyes, she had to make sure she got her to a doctor and soon.

“Yeah, you think you can handle me?!,” Nathan yelled at her, “I am so fucking sick of people trying to control me!”

“Oh really ?” Chloe snapped at him, “I thought you the school and the town? Well, newsflash asshole you're not going to get away with this!”

He snorted, “With what? Pushing Vic’s little toy? Having a gun? My dad owns the police, ain't shit going to happen.”  

“Maybe but I don’t think even your father can save you if you killed someone.” Chloe plan was to get him to leave then tell the police about what happened even if nothing came from it if he thought he couldn’t get away with killing them he probably wouldn’t do it right?

Nathan paled, “What the fuck do you know?!” He marched forward and stopped less than a foot away, “What did that Caulfield bitch find out?!”

Surprised at his reaction Chloe just barely managed to think on her feet, “Everything, everything about Kate! And soon everyone else will know too!”

His jaw dropped, and he dropped his gun to his side, “Shit, shit, shit….” He started mumbling to himself.  

“Max told me about how you drugged her, Rachel too!” She could probably make it out, but Taylor still wasn’t moving. No way was Chloe going to leave her here with him.

“Oh fuck! I-” Nathan’s voice broke. “Shit, I didn’t, I’m sorry.” She was unmoved by the tears starting to form, he didn’t deserve any pity from her.  If she could just get him to actually say what he had done, then she’d have something to go on…

“You're sorry? Kate is dead because of what you did! Max, Rachel and only God know’s how many other girls will having to deal with it for the rest of their lives!”

Nathan sniffed, actually sniffed, “ I didn’t mean for all this to happen! He said it would make me feel better and it doesn’t!” He raised his gun again but didn’t point it at her instead he just looked at it with anger, “I can’t fucking sleep anymore because all I see is her face!”

‘He’? Who was ‘He’?

“Nathan-” He ignored her as his face darkened and set into a sneer.

“Fuck him, fuck everybody! He’s always trying to control me, well I’m done you hear me? I’m fucking done! He and the whole fucking world can rot for all I care!”

He raised his gun to his temple and looked her in the eye, “I’m sorry.”

And then he pulled the trigger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, so that happened. I cut it off here because it just felt better that way. But the next few Ch.s shouldn't take as long to do!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short chapter, this one and the last one were supposed to be one but I didn't like the flow of it. I thought Nathan shooting himself should be the end of the chapter, gave it a little more punch since this is just rehash of what Chloe's thinking right now.

Chloe was having a bad day.

This morning she had her room torn apart by Nathan, almost shot a man, seen her best friend almost get run over by a train multiple times, seen Taylor’s dead body and to top it all off? She’d watched as Nathan killed himself right in front of her.    

So let’s make that a horrible day.  

While they had allowed her to change her shirt as it was covered in blood, not just hers either, they had pulled her to the Principal’s office as fast as possible. She was thankful that it wasn’t Bradshaw but another one of Blackwell guards, she didn’t have the energy right now to deal with him. They had been fast to grab her but weren’t fast to speak with her as she had been waiting in this room for what seemed like hours but to be fair, she honestly couldn’t tell. Chloe found herself staring into space, not really even thinking. Too bad she had left her phone in her room, she’d also forgotten it when she had been able to grab a shirt. 

They hadn’t even let her call her mom. 

The guard had brought her some water but hadn’t tried to speak with her, he looked just had spooked as everyone else that had stepped into Victoria's room. The damn crowders, they hadn't even seen Nathan shoot himself.

Finally, Principal Wall and an actual cop walked in. Chloe watched as Wells walked to his desk, his face pale and tense. The police with him stood off to the side, and she ignored the friendly smile that he tried to give her.

“I know this isn't pleasant for you,” Chloe rolled her eyes at the understatement, “but we have to go over what happened before Nathan…. Did what he did. Officers Berry will be taking notes for the official police inquiry. I'm sure you'll give them your full cooperation.”

Chloe simply nodded.

“As principal of Blackwell Academy, I take my duties seriously. I take the well-being of every student more seriously. What happened today should never happen in a hall of wisdom and knowledge. Miss.Christensen is currently unable to speak on what happened, and until she is able, it is up to you Miss.Price to tell us what happened. Please, tell us everything.”

Chloe took a deep breath. Where did she begin? What should she tell them? Nathan had mentioned that someone had been controlling him and who knows who it was. She couldn't let them get away, and she had no faith in the cops around here. No way was Chloe going to let this drop. Not to mention the fact that, oh yeah, she could control fucking time travel and had visions and shit which may or may not be related to all of this.

“I wasn’t feeling well, so I skipped class, I woke up to Taylor and Nathan arguing. I got pissed that someone woke me up but then I heard a thump, I guess it was Nathan pushing her, and I got freaked out, so I opened the door.”

“Why?,” asked Officer Berry. He had been taking notes but looked up at that. 

“What?”

“Why did you get involved? Most people wouldn’t get involved in another’s argument.”

“When I got close knew it was him, I was thinking about going in, but when I heard the thump, I just knew he had attacked her. No fucking way I was going to leave anyone alone with that guy anyway.”

Officer Berry frowned, “Are you saying that you knew that Mr.Prescott had violent tendencies?” 

Chloe watched as Wells' face paled and his eyes went wide. Yeah, he was not going to come out of this looking pretty.

“Dude was nuts. I saw him just yesterday with a gun, the one that he fucking shot himself with, in the girl's bathroom.”

The officers looked shocked at that and Berry opened his mouth, no doubt to ask about it but Chloe was just so fucking tired.

“I fucking told everyone that he had a gun and what happened? Nothing, nobody did shit! I know for a fact that Taylor told Jefferson that Nathan was creeping her out and he told her to shut up, and then Nathan goes and tries to kill her! Fuck this place!”

If Chloe had thought that Wells was pale before it was nothing like now.

“Nathan fucking shot himself because he felt bad that he’s dosed up girls at his hella stupid parties! And none of you did shit!” Chloe stopped, almost out of breath. Her head was pounding again, but she ignored it.

“Miss.Price please,” Wells looked at the cop, he did not look happy with anything she had said. “There was no proof that Nathan Prescott had any kind of plans-”

“I bet you guys didn’t even check his room, you motherfuckers care more-”

“Alright, Miss.Price that's enough….”Officer Berry sighed, “Mr.Wells I think it best if you would leave us alone for a moment.”

Wells nodded quickly and left, already pulling out his phone. Now that she thought about it Wells could have been in on the whole thing. Who better to cover up for Nathan? But Wells couldn't have been controlling him, Wells didn’t have the spine. So what all he knew was up in the air but at the least he willing let a student carry around a gun. Had he known about Nathan’s druggings of girls?

Chloe held her head, all she wanted in this world was to get some sleep.

“Miss.Price?” Officer Berry patted her on the arm, “ Look I know that you have had a long day, but I need you to go over what you said about Mr.Prescott.”

She sighed, “Look all I know is that he was drugging girls at his parties.When I told him I knew about it, he shot himself.” She paused, should she tell him about Kate? Or Max and Rachel? Nathan may be dead but whoever he was working with was still around and who knows what pull he had in the police.  

“I see…”Berry sighed, “Thank you for your help Chloe, can I get you to sign this statement please?”

She did and booked it out of there quickly. The halls of Blackwell were utterly empty, she glanced up at one of the clocks and was a little surprised that it was only early evening. She had thought for sure that night would have fallen. As she walked out, the sun hadn’t even started to set yet.

“Chloe?”

She jumped, having not seen Warren, “What are you doing here?” This was the first time she had seen him all today, and his face hadn’t gotten any better. His eye was still pretty bruised up. 

Warren frowned, “Dude you almost got shot! What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t stick around to make sure you're alright?”  

Chloe flinched, god she sounded like an asshole. “Sorry, I’m just tried.”

He held up his hands, “I get it, well not really, but I can guess. If you want to be alone that’s cool, you’ve been through a lot, but they closed down the dorm, it won’t be open for a couple more hours.”

“Ughh,” she tilted her head back and groaned. “I just want to sleep!”  

“Sorry,” Warren pulled open his bag. “But I have your phone at least?”

“What? Really?” Chloe grabbed it, when she turned the screen on there were a million notations on it. Texts from her mom, Max and random numbers she didn’t know. “Ah fuck….”

“Here,” Warren pulled out a battery pack, “Go ahead and use this, I already changed mine.”

“Thanks, dude!” Chloe plugged it in, thankfully it was dead yet. It took forever to come back on when it died. “Wait how did you get this? I thought I lift it in my room?”

Warren blushed, “You did, I had to lie to the cops that were keeping people out of the dorm. I ahh...I told them that I was your boyfriend.”

At the word boyfriend, she froze. “Warren,” she said in a low voice. “Look I-”

He held his hands up again, “I know, you told me no, I can respect that! But I thought you’d want your phone….”

She’d let it go, just for today. Chloe sat down on the grass, Warren joined her a few feet away. She quickly deleted most of the texts from random numbers and then sent one to Max with the promise to call her soon.

First, though she had to call her mom, who had blown up her phone more than everyone else combined.

Joyce had answered on the first ring, “Chloe?”

“Hey, mom.”

Should could hear her mom’s breath hitch through the phone and her own eyes watered. “Oh thank the lord, I was so scared when I heard the news, and then you wouldn’t answer your damn phone-”

“I’m sorry I-” Chloe stopped, she felt the tears rolling down her face. She rubbed them away quickly, not wanting Warren to see them.

“What in the world is going on down there? All the news is hush and that damn school won’t tell us anything!”

“Remember me telling you about Nathan?”

“Yes, Chloe. I can remember this morning.”And David used to wondered where her mouth came from.

“Well he...shot himself.Today in the dorms, almost shot someone else too.”

Her mother gasped, “Lord…. I knew the boy was trouble but…”

“Yeah. They kicked us out of the dorms for a couple of hours, so I didn’t have my phone.”

“I see…” Joyce paused. “I think me and David should take a trip down there and visit.”

“Whoa, you guys don’t have to do that!”

“I know I don’t, but I just heard that there was a shooting at my daughter's school and it involved a boy she had warned them about, and they had done nothing. You could have been hurt Chloe or worse. I’m not about to tell them to forget that, even for some rich jackass.”

“Oh…. thanks, mom.”

“David and I will be there on Saturday alright? We’ll spend the weekend together before I ‘go off’ on Blackwell.”

“Go off? Where did you learn that ?”

“Facebook.”

Chloe laughed, maybe a little too hard, and it felt useful to after the day she had.

“I’ll let you go, Chloe, I love you. And call me tomorrow alright?”

“Sure thing mom.”

She hanged up and noticed that Warren was giving her a Look. “What?”

Warren rubbed his head, “I mean it’s not any of my business but why didn’t you tell her about Nathan? She’s going to find out when she gets here.”

Chloe snorted, “Better then instead of her driving down here in the middle of the night and taking me away to be locked away on a padded room.”    

“I mean…. I guess that makes sense.”

She thought for a moment, as of right now the only people who knew about this whole...thing were Max and herself. And while she wasn’t going to tell him everything, like the time travel bits, to would be nice to talk about to some else.

“Warren,” she said slowly, “I don't mean sound nuts, but there's something terrible going on at Blackwell...

He looked at her and nodded, “I mean I don't doubt it if anything, today proves that.”

“I'm working on getting proof that Kate Marsh was connected to Nathan.”

At that Warren looked shocked, “Kate? What makes you think that?”

“Max thinks something happened at Kate’s last party and considering that he fucking shot himself when I said I was going to tell everyone about it I think it’s a solid idea.”

“Wait, he shook his head, “That’s why he killed himself?”

“Yep. I bluffed that I knew everything and he couldn’t take it.”

“Shit….”

“But before he...you know, he said that someone told him to do it.”

“Well, you told the cops right?”

Chloe gave him a flat look, “Whoever is working with Nathan has Prescott backing. Nathan wasn’t lying when he said that his dad owns most of the Bay.”

After a moment he nodded, “I'm not big into conspiracies, because facts are an actual thing but I wouldn't doubt it. So...who do you think it is?”

Before Chloe could answer him, she saw something strange in the sky. “What the hell is that?”

Slowly they watch dumbfounded as an eclipse started and much faster than it should have ever been.

“What the fuck? There is no eclipse today!” Chloe shook her head, “Right ?” She was about pulled out her phone to google it, but Warren nodded.  

“There's not supposed to be a full eclipse for years.” He jerked his head away, and so did Chloe. After all, you weren’t supposed to look at eclipses. “ I would have known if there was. I swear.”

Chloe felt a chill and shivered. A feeling of dread and being watched soon followed, she couldn’t help but look behind her.

A white rabbit was sitting on the steps to Blackwell She blinked and it was gone, but the chill stayed. “I told you, Warren...Something is going on at Blackwell.”

Warren just nodded, clearly still shocked, “Yeah, after that? I’d believe.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk if I'll get to the pool in the next chapter but man am I excited to get there! Next chapter should maybe be next week? I'm bouncing around my fics right now, I may work on Bound to the Past idk man I got a lot of fics going on a one time my bros 
> 
> I am - allhailthegreatkovira,evilyoyogang,chloepleasestopdying,phantomzoneofgayness (like 5 more but those are the only ones that matter) over on the tumblr, come and yell at me


	8. Chapter 8

Chloe felt empty, couldn't even find it in herself to feel sad or angry, just ….nothing. She sat on her bed in the almost complete darkness staring at the wall. She had tried at some point to read or sleep, but she gave up. She’d eaten but only because her mom had forced her too, had sat across from her to make sure she ate, but Chloe hadn’t felt hungry at all even though she hadn’t eaten since yesterday.

How could she eat or sleep? How could she go on like nothing had happened? Every moment it was replaying in her mind, over and over again. It just wasn’t fair, she should have had more time! Chloe felt tears build up, she’d already cried today, and it probably wouldn’t be the last time. At least this time no one would be around to watch.

She closed her eyes, and she could have sworn she was back there, her hands covered in blood again, heard herself screaming -

“Max!”

Chloe jerked awake with a sense of unease. She was sitting at her desk, and her lights were still on, she must have fallen asleep reading up on time travel. But for a moment there it was like the train tracks again, a vision. She really disliked them, all of them seemed to be her being unhappy. Not to mention that she had no idea where any of them were coming from

Her phone dinged, it must have been what woken her up, to begin with. She unlocked her phone, taking note of the very late hour. Max had texted her a couple of times.

Max: got something to show you !!! meet me in front of campus :D

Even with her dark mood, Chloe couldn’t help the laugh over Max using emojis, what was she ? 12? She sent a text that she was on the way and then another one calling her a nerd.

She left her room, all the lights in the hallway had been turned off and the cops that had been there all night were all gone. Victoria's room was unsurprisingly taped off. She felt terrible for her, she may be a bitch but having someone kill themselves in your room? And Victoria and Nathan had been friends too….Damn and Chloe had no idea where she was staying either. She let that thought pass, nothing she could do about it anyway. Plus Victoria probably didn’t want to talk about this with her.

She walked carefully down the hall all, but one door was open, and the light was on. Chloe looked inside and seen Dana sitting on her bed and curled up into a ball, arms covering her face.

Chloe decided to take and moment to talk to her, Max wouldn’t mind waiting a couple minutes. She liked Dana, and it definitely looked like she needed someone to talk to.

She knocked on the doorway “Hey, Dana…”

Dana looked up, Chloe thought that maybe she’d been crying. “Hey, Chloe.” Even her usual pep was gone.

“Are you alright?”

“Better than Taylor…” Dana sniffled, “Or you I guess. I just can't believe he would even do, that you know?”

Chloe raised an eyebrow, “Well, Nathan is-was a nutjob, but yeah I see what you mean.”

“I feel so bad for Taylor, I mean I know her and Nathan were never tight but this?”

“It must have gotten back to him that she thought something was wrong with him…”

Dana looked surprised, “Really? I’m surprised she’d say that most of the Vortex Club would never dream of pissing off Nathan.”

Chloe scratched the back of her head, “I...overheard it. She and Victoria were talking about it in the bathroom, she was telling Vic to talk to him about it, she also was talking about it with Jefferson. Who was a complete asshole about it too.”

“Really, I always thought Jefferson was cool?”

“He told her to knock it off, and Taylor was just trying to get attention. Even called her ‘Victoria's shadow.’”

Dana frowned, “Fuck that guy! God, Nathan could have killed Taylor and you!”She shook her head, “This school is such bullshit.”

Chloe sighed, “You can say that again, there’s more going on here than Nathan.”

“Hey...Are you mixed in something you shouldn’t be?” Dana leaned forward, sounding concerned. “Whatever Nathan was in was enough that he fucking killed himself over it, you should back up right now Chloe.”

“Look...it’s complicated, ok? I don’t want to drag you into it but I can’t back out now, my friend is involved, and I can’t let her deal with this by herself.”

Now it was Dana’s turn to raise an eyebrow, “The friend was the one that saved you yesterday? I heard it was Max Caulfield….”

Chloe felt a blush start creeping up the back of her neck. “Um... yeah? Why do you know her?”

Dana’s smile was a little coy and made Chloe a lot worried. “I’ve hung out with her a few times. I’m surprised, I always thought skaters were her type, and she usually doesn’t move this fast…”

Chloe’s blush was now making her entire face bright red, “Wait, it’s not like that! We were friends growing up, I don’t- she doesn’t like me like that!”

“Wait….” Dana looked her over, “You were friends growing up? Were you the one that taught her to ride?”

The blush faded a little, and it made Chloe feel even better knowing that Max had talked about her while she had been in Seattle. “Yeah, I don’t ride anymore but when I was a kid I was really into it. I’m surprised Max kept it up since she always fell so much.”

“Huh… Is that who you are sneaking out to see?”

“Sneaking out?” Chloe looked at herself, her Mass Effect t-shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes. She differently didn’t look like she was about to spend a night inside. “I’m totally not sneaking out, that’s against the rules.”

Dana laughed, “Chloe, you are the worst liar. Tell Max I said hi and to come around some more alright?”

That blush came back, “I’ll tell her.”

“And Chloe? Be careful.”

She knew Dana wasn’t talking about Max, “I will.”

As Chloe tried to be as quiet as possible walking down the old stairway, she couldn’t help but feel a little giddy. She had never snuck out before, she never had the need. While in Seattle she’d never been close enough to anyone to ask her too. Now here she was only the second day meeting up with Max sneaking out of her dorm. If her younger self could see her now, how surprised would she be that Max was now the troublemaker and she was the one that had to be talked into everything?

It was nice and cool outside, no annoying jocks playing football.

She started walking toward the front of the school, no one in sight. It gave her a bit of a breather, and she needed those as much as she could get them. Chloe had trouble keeping track of all that had happened, it didn’t help that after talking to Warren she’d taken a nap for a couple of hours before reading up on time travel again, this time with reading up on visions. Of course she’d didn’t find anything. The more she’d thought about it the more it freaked her out, could she really be the first? And Chloe liked having these powers, of course she did, she’d saved lives with them, she could fucking control time! But these visions were bringing so much dread…. They just rang of death and she had no idea whose. Her own? The towns?

“Penny for your thoughts?” Said an amused Max.

Chloe jumped, while she had been lost in thought she had walked across the school grounds and passed Max, who wasn’t even hidden.

“Fucking hell,” Chloe her hand over her fast beating heart. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“Oh shit dude,” Max rubbed her head in embarrassment, “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”

“ It’s alright, I wasn’t paying attention.” Chloe sighed, “I just have a lot of your mind you know?”

Max nodded, “How are you holding up?”

Chloe laughed despite herself, “Since you asked me a couple of hours ago? The same.”

Max stuffed, “That was over text that doesn’t count.”

She sighed, “I’m not sad about Nathan, how can I when I saw what he did? He killed you, Max. Actually for real murdered you and Taylor. But I- I can’t unsee it you know? That image of him killing himself is in my head forever. And it’s kinda fucking me up.

“Seeing all that must have been awful.” Max reached out to hold her hand, and Chloe let her. “I”m so sorry you have to deal with all of this, but I know you can do it. I mean I know I couldn’t deal with having powers, or any of this.” She pulled her into a hug, “You are a badass, Chloe Elizabeth Price! And we are going to figure out what the fuck is going on.”

Chloe pulled away from the hug but kept an arm around Max’s shoulders, “And find out what happened to Kate. We’ll make sure that who ever Nathan was working with can’t it to anybody else.

Max leaned into her, causing Chloe to have a small melt down and almost not hear her say, “ Plus we have to deal with that super tornado. God, what if becomes a sharknado?”

She couldn’t stop the laugh, “Fuck off Max.”

“Your right, I shouldn’t joke….. Do you want to be Helen Hunt or Bill Paxton?”

Chloe pushed Max away with a laugh, “You went with a Twister joke? Really? What year are you living in?”

Max shrugged, “Fine, I’ll be Helen Hunt.”

“Maybe we should focus on looking for clues?” Chloe nodded to the main building.

“Right.” Her friend nodded. “Alright for starters you said that someone was working with Nathan, right? We just need to figure out who it could be.”

Chloe nodded, “It has to be a guy that has a lot of power, enough that Nathan followed him around.” She froze as the thought entered her mind, “Wait Max, your dad-”

Max frowned, “I mean I don’t think so? My dad is a fucking asshole, but he hated Nathan. He complained about him all the time. I hear him bitching about the fact that he couldn't arrest him like every other day.”

On one hand that was a good thing, Max didn’t need to deal with all that mess but on the other Chloe still really wanted to beat the shit out of him.

“If you say so,” Chloe frowned, “I can’t think of anyone in school who could be working with him though. I think we should talk to Victoria or Taylor tomorrow they may know who Nathan was talking about.”

“Alright, it’s a plan. But right now it’s the time to search for clues. Now tell me,’ Max paused dramatically, “Do you want to be Velma or Daphne?”

Chloe rolled her eyes,“Nether.”

“Oh fine,” Max pouted, “ Can I get a drum roll, please…”

She waited for Chloe to comply, smiling when she started to pat her legs quickly, “ I present to thee the keys to Kingdom!” Max held up a large key chain.

“Nice!” Chloe raised her hand for a high five. “Hope we don’t get caught, we differently don’t need any more trouble.”

Max shrugged, Look at all the trouble already round here. At this point, who gives a fuck?”

“A good point actually.”

“Come on partner,” Max wrapped an arm around her, making Chloe once again fight a blush. “Lead the way.” They started walking toward the building.

“Well,” Chloe cleared her throat, “You were always the best partner in crime.”

“And now I’ll be the best partner in time!”

Chloe stopped walking, “That was the lamest thing I’ve ever-”

Max cover her mouth with her hand, “Shhh! Look,” she whispered. Coming out of the main doors was none other than Jefferson and Victoria Chase.

Jefferson looked annoyed, not surprising since he often seemed that way when talking to Victoria. She, on the other hand, was looking slightly ruff, she was notably pale and looked like she had been crying.

“I will ask you again Mis. Chase, let it go.”

“Let it go? Nathan killed himself today, and you're telling me to let it go?” Victoria sniffed even as she glared at him. “Taylor is in the hospital right now, and you want me to _let it go_?”

“ I imagine…,” Jefferson tried to calm her, “ That you pretty upset right now-”

“Upset? That’s a bit of an understatement! I came to you about Nathan, Taylor came to you about Nathan, and you didn’t do anything about him!” To Chloe’s surprise, Victoria pushed him. “And look at what happened!”

“Stop right there,” Jefferson crossed his arms. “ I will not be accountable for some Nathan, unstable as he was, did.”

Victoria huffed, “You are a fucking teacher! God, I should go right to the broad or whatever-”

“Mis.Chase.” Jefferson cut her off. “I don't like threats, and I will pull you out of the contest if they continue.”

“Do you think I care about that stupid contest right now?” She asked to the shock of everyone there. Victoria sniffled, obviously fighting tears, “God I can’t believe I looked up to you.”

She took off, Chloe and Max had to hide as she walked past them on the way to the dorms but Victoria didn’t see them, either because of her tears or she just didn’t care.

Jefferson stood there for a moment, a deep frown on his face before he headed in the other diction to the teacher housing.

“Damn,” Max mumbled. “Thank god I dropped out that guy is a fucking asshole.”

“The drama is going to get real around here tomorrow, I mean Victoria the teacher pet turning on Jefferson? Crazy….”

“I’m a little surprised,” Max agreed. “But I guess the whole thing with Nathan is hitting her hard. They were close went I went here.”

Chloe nodded, “They still were. But come on let’s go get some clues.”

Max unlocked the door, Chloe holding her phone’s flashlight for her to see. It was weird seeing the school at night time. It gave her the creeps, to be honest, but the fact that she was breaking on entering was pretty exciting.

“Max the Nightingale,” Chloe joked. “Looks like my first break in is a success.”

“Dude, I fucking wish. Just be careful alright? I don’t want you caught on our first night out…” Max started to walk over to Wells office before she paused. “If I have a key that can’t be breaking, right? Can they charge us for just entering?”

Chloe laughed, “I will let you try to explain that to the cops.”

Max shrugged, “I’m just saying…Besides hopefully if we do get caught you drop a paint bucket on their heads or something.”

Chloe raised an eyebrow, “Who do you think I am, Macaulay Culkin?

“You have time powers, Chloe. I think you can pull it off,” Max unlocked the door to the office with a wink.

How ever when she tried to unlock Well’s office she ran out of luck. “Looks like my dad doesn’t have the key to his fucking door.” Max gave the door a weak kick. “Dick is probably hiding something.”

“Yeah, no doubt.”

Max pulled out what looked like lock picks, “We need this door open, good thing I know a bit about picking locks….”

Chloe blinked in surprise, “I knew that you got hardcore, but I didn’t know you made a habit of breaking and entering.”

She laughed but kept her eyes on the lock, “I’m not very good. Frank taught me how, but he isn’t that good either. I just learned enough to impress girls.” She moved the picks around, but to Chloe, it just looked like she was watching someone play Skyrim.

After a minute there was a small click from the door and Max opened it with a bow, “ My lady, after you.”

“I have got to say, I really am impressed,” Chloe looked round at Wells office wondering where to start.

“God I hate this office,” Max muttered. “Wells is so pretentious.”

Chloe nodded, “ Yeah all this fake Fancy art crap, he wants everybody to think that he has money.” She looked at his desk, “I mean a fucking bronze eagle? Come on!”

“Maybe if he weren’t such a useless asshole and had like Monet or Picasso in here I’d still be at Blackwell.” Max sat down at the desk, “I mean the man runs a fucking art school? He should have some kind of taste.”

Chloe rolled her eyes, “Wells will here because he’s a pushover, not because he’s good at his job.” She opened up a box that was full of student files and started looking through them. They were both silent, Max bringing up Wells computer files and Chloe reading everything he had pulled out.

He had pulled out Chloe, Victoria, Taylor, Max, Rachel, Kate and of course, Nathan’s files. She read through them all carefully. Her own record was no surprise, average grades, and notes from teachers that she needed to speak up more. A memo dated from Monday said that she had reported someone with no evidence, but it didn’t say that it had been Nathen she’d reported. No surprise there, they had planned to cover the whole thing up, but they probably hadn’t thought he would go crazy and try and murder someone. Victoria’s and Taylor had no surprises ether, they both had excellent records and grades. Rachel’s was glowing with praise, but a note was added that all of the sudden she had dropped out.

She took a deep breath before opening Kate’s nervous about hearing more about this friend of Max's that had stolen her heart. But Kate had been an average teen, B average, a wonder to have in a class according to her file. But like Max had told her in her bedroom, all of that stopped about a month before her death. A note a few days before said that they had been about to suspend her. Max’s own files showed the same dropped afterward.

“Chloe,” Max called her over to the computer, “Check out these files….”

She leaned over, scanning the screen, “Rachel Amber went to Wells about Nathan? And he told her that he couldn’t do anything because she had no proof…. God what a major asshole.”

Max pulled up another file, “Look, he kept all of Nathan shit, bad grades, teacher complains, secret probation…” She shook her head, “Chloe if this got out Blackwell would be in deep shit.”

Chloe nodded, “God I wonder how much money the Prescott’s dropped for all of this to be gone.” A picture caught her eye, “What is that?”

Max clicked on it, “I don’t know.”

For a moment it just looked like a mess but then, “Look it says something..... Kate in the Dark Room. Kate in the Dark Room.”

Max leaned back, face pale, “God that’s fucked up, what does that even mean? Is it about that night or ?

Chloe started reading other ‘art pieces’ that Nathan had made. “Whoa, listen to this one, M.J. is teaching me all that he knows and M.J. will keep me safe.” She nodded to Max, “Looks like we are looking for an M.J.”

Max patted her on the shoulder, “My dad's got files at home, if M.J. is here he should have one on him.”

Chloe stood, “Hella fucking sweet.”

They high fived each other. As they walked out of the office, Chloe had a thought. When she turned to Max to tell her though Max cut her off.

“I know that impish look,” Max smiled, “What is it that you’re planning?”

Chloe laughed, “ It’s the first time I’ve ever broken and entered, I just think I should have some fun is all. Maybe go for a midnight swim?”

Max grinned, “Hell yeah! it's been a fucking week, and it’s only Tuesday.” She paused, “I think it’s Wednesday now but anyway we're done for the night, and nobody busted us. We should celebrate!”

“So........splish splash?”

“Splish splash!”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chloe hadn’t ever been to the pool, she’d given up on sports forever ago. But according to the rest of the school, their swim team was kinda a big big deal, making their pool fancier than any other she’d been in.

“We are now in the Otters' lair…,” Max said dramatically as she opened the doors.

“Oooh wow...... I just want to know if the water is actually heated or not.”

Max paused in between the changing rooms and asked with a small smirk, “So Boys or Girls?”

Chloe answered without thought, “Girls.” And blushed when Max’s smirk grew. The blushed stayed as they walked through the changing room, she tried to ignore the thought in the back of her mind that Max may be flirting with her. No way it was possible.

She hit the light switch when they walked in, and indeed the pool was massive.

“Hell yeah!” Max clapped her hands then reached for the bottom of her shirt. Her next words were muffled, “This is going to be awesome!”

Chloe froze, she hadn’t really thought this through. When she suggested swimming, she’d hadn’t thought about what they would actually swim in, and it wasn’t like they had brought suits either. So, being the useless lesbian she was, she completely froze as Max took off her shirt and her pants.

She’d seen Max’s tattoo on her arm, kinda hard to miss since it took up most of it, but it turns out that Max had two more. A jackalope was sketched out on her rids, it’s horns ending right under her bra while an anchor and compress sat on the other side of her body on her upper thigh and hip, though Chloe couldn't see all of it since Max’s underwear was in the way. And wow had Max grown up in the years since they had seen each other….

Max’s splash as she jumped into the pool jerked Chloe out of her thoughts, and the blush was back again when she realized that she had definitely been staring. Nervously she twisted her hands at the bottom of her shirt, god knows she should have been used to changing in front of others from school but the thought of Max seeing her was a little different.

“Come on Chloe! This was your idea remember ?” Max splashed a little water on her, just barely missing her feet.

“Alright, hold your horses …” Chloe took off her clothes quickly, fast enough that she didn't have to think about it. She jumped into the pool making the water splash over Max.

When her head come above water, Max splashed her and Chloe immediately splashback, a reflex born from countless beach days in the summer. They went back a font, the waves getting more massive and their laughter louder.

Finally, after Chloe had donked her under, Max raised her hands in surrender. “ Alright you win,” she said with a grin. “I should have known better.”

“Damn right Caulfield!”

Max just laughed and swim to the edge of the pool, and she followed behind her. They rested their arms on the side and waited to catch their breath. Chloe looked after at her friend, Max’s hair was a mess, but she looked happier than she had since they meet back up. Her grin was huge, and her eyes were bright, to Chloe she never looked better.

“I’m happy we met back up Max.” Chloe’s voice was rougher than she intends, she couldn’t help it. A whole lot of shit had happened, but the shining light of it all was hanging out with her best friend again.

“Me too. I mean who knew that you’d come back to the bay all powered up?” Max nudged her shoulder.

“I’m not feeling all mighty….” She frowned as she remembered her visions and her bloody nose.

“Hey, none of that alright? You're the smartest and bravest person I know Chloe.”

She snorted, “I’m just a nerd.”

“Um,” Max flicked her ear making her jump back, “Nerds are the fucking bomb.”

“Shut up.” Chloe laughed, a little to much to cover her jumping heart rite. “You're just saying that since I saved your life.”

“No,” her friend rolled her eyes, “Nerds are hot.”

“ Oh yeah, I’m really beating them off with a stick.”

“ I thought you were though, didn’t you say something about some dude asking you out? Uhhh,” she snapped her fingers, “Warren?”

“Warren doesn’t count!”

“Oh really? Why not?”

“Because I don’t like him like that,” Chloe huffed.

“Wowser, don’t go all blood rage on me now.” Max laughed, “Maybe you just need some confidence, though you could do better than some Blackwell dude-bro.”

“Believe me I really don’t want one.” Chloe’s voice was firm, too firm actually. Her eyes widened, she hadn’t meant to say that. Well, she had, but wow did it sound a lot gayer out loud.

Max looked at her for a second a thoughtful look on her face, Dana had given her that same look in her room. Was that the look of seeing a Baby Gay Out Herself On Accident Because Boys Are Gross? Chloe steeled herself, in no way did she want to deal with this right now, not with everything going on. But she would if Max asked because she wasn’t going lie to Max.

Then Max smiled, or was it a smirk ?, “No boys then.” She lifted herself out of the pool, “ Come on, let's get out of here before the rent a cops show.”

“Oh, yeah,” Chloe climbed out after her. Why was she disappointed that Max didn’t ask about it? It wasn’t like Chloe was ready to come out anyway….

“Ugh, maybe this was a bad idea,” Max grunted as she tried to pull her shirt down.

“Yeah putting on clothes while wet is a fucking pain.” Chloe shook out as much water as possible from her hair, thank god it was so short.

“Don’t worry you look cute with that rat nest on your head,” Max had to lend up to ruffle her hair.

Chloe frowned, “ Not fair, yours is too short…”

“That's the point Price! I don’t have to-”

Max cut herself off as the door to the pool started to unlock. They both froze for a moment before Max grabbed her hand and whispered, “Let's go!”

They both couldn’t stop their laughing as they ran back through the shower room and the night guard yelling after them that he, “has a flashlight and a stick!” didn’t help much. Thankfully there were no other guards in the building, and the side door was open.

Chloe laughed, “Fuck I thought we were dead!”

“You still could be, you aren't back to your room yet dude.” Max looked around the corner of the building “Come on let’s came a break for it!”

They ran, then walked because Chloe wasn’t all that ahleadit, but right before they made it to the girl's dorms a guard must have heard them, as he started right toward them.

“Ah, damn I’m going to be a fugitive!” Chloe hissed.

“Not on my watch you aren’t,” Max took her hand, “You’ll stay with me.” With that, they turned to the parking lot where Max’s car sat. The guard was shouting at them now, telling them to stop but he wasn’t running too fast. Blackwell’s guards were kinda sad honestly.

“Into the car!” Max slid across the hood, Chloe was impressed and jerked open her door. She yanked it to drive and floored it as soon as Chloe had the side door closed.

They laughed most of the way to Max’s, it was late, really late and that meant that everything was a million times funnier than it would generally have though Chloe thought the look on the guard's face would have been hilarious at any time. When they got to Max’s the giggling kicked up again, Max tried and failed to shush her as they walked up the stairs and tried to keep quiet.

Chloe couldn’t help it, she felt better than she had all week, she was riding high on adrenaline and lack of sleep. She just felt right and it couldn’t be contained. When they finally reached Max’s room, they both fell down on her bed, Chloe not even feeling self-conscious about like she had at past sleepovers in Seattle.

She fell asleep with a smile on her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> k so. This chapter was going to be much longer but I cut it because I was stuck on the morning bit like all day. So Here yea go. 
> 
> For you guys that are worried about Chloe's visions that I keep trowing in there, it will be sad but this is a fix it fic people. It will end happily for all gays involved. On that note, We'll see whats up with Victoria and Taylor later, I swear there's a reason Vic is all pissed off and stuff. I cut out the bomb even though it was cool because why the hell was that Max's first thought?? Like, come on man. I still love Dana and I have a whole little backstory with her and Max that I don't know I'll be able to put in this fic? We'll see. Oh yeah and Chloe is a useless lesbian. 
> 
> And as always come yell at me over at chloepleasestopdying


	9. Chapter 9

~~~~

Chloe wakes up slowly, the light coming from Max’s window shining in on her eyes. Even though they had fallen asleep so late she felt better than she had all week, she hadn’t had a creepy time travel vision/ nightmare. She stretched out her arms and glanced over at Max, who was facing away from her but looked still asleep. Max’s hair was a mess and pointing almost straight up. Chloe smiled, it really made her look like a Final Fantasy character.

They had a lot of sleep overs when they were kids, Chloe’s dad had always loved to wake them up to help make pancakes. They would be exhausted, having stayed up late giggling at the R-rated movies they weren't supposed to watch, but would help the best they could. Chloe never really got the hang of it and to this day pancakes are about the only thing she could make without burning something.

Chloe looked at Max's back for a moment and remembered last night, her smirk at her choice of the girl's bathroom stuck out, and Chloe couldn’t help the thought that maybe Max had been flirting with her....But would she know? Max said that she was Bi but Chloe had no idea what her type was. It probably wasn't anything like Chloe, who was just a nerd. Next to her, Max was…. Max. She had tattoos and played the guitar and was just-

Her line of thought got cut off when Max rolled over, still asleep, her mouth open and her hair even more messed up in the front. Chloe had to stop herself from laughing, but then had a better idea when she remembered that her camera was in her beg. Carefully, she reached over to pull it out then lined up the shot with great care and snapped the picture before Max moved again.

Max binked open her eyes at the sound of the shuatter and Chloe didn’t stop her laugh this time. After a moment of Max looking very confused she realized what Chloe had done and pushed her shoulder, “Don’t take my picture this early! I look like a mess….”

“Maybe,” Chloe shrugged, “But it’s a cute mess.”

Her friend just smiled, and they laid there for a moment, Chloe watching Max’s face and Max staring off into space with a smile.

“It feels….different than yesterday…” Max muttered under her breath.

Chloe thought about leaving the statement be but decided to point out that, “It's probably because we broke into the school? Almost getting caught will change some things….” She paused then as casually as possible asked, “Do you regret it? Breaking into the school….”

Max shook her head so fast that Chloe was concerned she would get whiplash. “Of course not Chloe, it was the most fun I had in ages!” She sat up against the headboard and Chloe followed her so they could sit side by side. “Hell I shouldn’t I be asking you? You actually still go to Blackwell.”

Chloe shrugged, “I had fun…” She wanted to be truthful with her friend, her best friend, so she added, “It was the most fun I’ve had since I hanged out with you last.”

She didn’t look at Max’s face because she knew that it was filled with sadness and regret, that wasn’t the point she wanted to make. “Remember?,” Chloe continued on, “We spent hours looking for our pirate crap…”

She heard Max’s sniffle but then she let out a small laugh. “You mean you made me look for our pirate crap!”

Chloe turned to look at her, and sure enough, Max’s eyes had tears in them. She ignored her own and pushed on with a smile, “Same thing Caulfield. We….we had some good times right?” Max made a sound of agreement. “I know I should get going back to school but I just want to hang out like we used too you know? If everything that’s going on….” She shrugged, “I’m not as good as you are anyway. ”

Max frowned and shook her head, “Don’t say that shit….You are great at photography, and your drawings skills are way better than mine.”

She blushed, “Thanks, Max….”She sighed, “ I just hate having people judge my stuff you know? Even if,” her voice dropped and took on a sarcastic tone, “Every great artist gets rejected before they get accepted.” Chloe leaned back and closed her eyes, “I just wish it was simpler.”

Max hummed in agreement, “ I know what you mean, god knows that I hated turning my pics when I went to Blackwell.”

“Do you really hate Blackwell ?” Chloe asked suddenly, “I mean I totally get why you would.” It was just….Max had always been a teachers pet when they were younger, even though she had a harder time than Chloe. She’d only got into trouble around Chloe, one of their teachers had called it a gamble to pair them together, either they worked together perfectly and did the best in class or they made all kinds of trouble. It usually depended on if Chloe could convince Max to follow after her.

Her friend was quiet for a moment, “ It’s not that I want to burn the place down or anything. I've wanted to get out here since,” Max’s voice thickened, “since you left, basically.”

Chloe reached over to pull her into a tight hug, “Well I’m here now right ?”

Max hugged her back just as tight, “ I’m pretty fucking glad you're here. Wish we could just lay around all morning and eat pancakes like we used too.” She pulled away and frowned at Chloe, “But you have to get to school.”

Chloe laughed, “Says the person who helped me break into the said school.”

“Hey, now that was for research and shit.”

“We went swimming in the pool remember?” Chloe climbed out of bed and started to stretch out, “I’m a full-fledged criminal now.”

Max laughed, “I guess you're right, who would have known that I would be the one corrupting you ?”

Chloe grinned, “Last night was only the start of my reign of crime.”

“Oh? And what are you going to do next ‘Oh rebellious one’ ?”

“Today the gym,” Chloe put her hands on her hips then said dramatically, “Tomorrow the world!

Max smiled but then frowned, “Look Chloe….” She started slowly. “You deserve to cut loose and be wild ok?” A small laugh, “I mean I love seeing you like that, hanging out like we’re kids again, but I want you to be careful...."

Chloe blinked, “Careful? Max I can control time, sure there are limits but-”

“I was there when you fainted Chloe,” Max cut her off. “You saved my life from the train but I saw you afterwards…we don’t know anything about this powers.

“You don’t think I can control them?” Chloe crossed her arms. “ I'm learning the limits Max, I mean I saved you life and Taylor's.”

Max nodded, “Yeah you did, and it was awesome, you're awesome. I just want you to be careful, I don’t want to lose you again. I mean shit, you could be lost in time or something! ”

Chloe couldn’t argue that, not really. Max had a point, who knows the side effects of time travel ? On time and on herself ? Sure as hell not Chloe. Her research hadn’t found anything helpful so she was at a lost. No wise man had shown up yet, no secret groups to give her answers to her many questions.

She nodded, and Max smiled in visible relief, “Alright, I’ll be careful ok?” She paused wondering if she should tell her about the flashes she’d been having but again decided against it. It would only worry her, there was nothing she could do about them, and they wouldn’t make any more sense to Max anyway.

Chloe looked around for her shoes having thrown them off last night and not really remembering where they had gone, “ I guess that means I should go to school huh? That probably falls under taking care of myself.”

“Fuck yeah it does,” Max confirmed. She laughed, “ Who would have known that this was where we would wind up? When we were kids, we’d just hang out in your room all the time, driving our parents up the wall.”

“Yeah, but we had a lot of fun doing it.” Chloe pointed out, “ Though sadly we're not kids anymore, which sucks because now I have to pay for my own food.”

Max laughed, “There are some pluses though? I mean at least you can date now. Actually, that may be a downside I know my dad gives me lectures about the dangers of boys all the time.”

Chloe rubbed her arm nervous as she always was when the subject of dating came up, though she tried to cover it with a laugh, “My step-dad is too scared to talk about that kind of stuff with me. You know....you never told me if you had a serious boyfriend while I was away.” Why did she ask that? It wasn’t like she would like the answer.

Because of course Max had dated. She was smart, funny, creative and Chloe would have to be blind to not see how stupid hot Max was with her tattoos, so why wouldn’t someone want to date her? She’d really grown into herself when Chloe had been away and Chloe couldn’t help but realize that she hadn’t, she was still a nerd with no friends and no true skills. Sure her pictures weren't bad and her art was alright but she knew that was nothing when she compared Max’s work to hers.

“Not really,” Max’s answer brought her out of her thoughts. “ I went through a "boy toy" phase for like a month but it was never serious, thank god. I did go on a few dates with a girl from Blackwell, but it didn’t work out.”

Chloe was surprised, “Really? Huh…. You dated a girl from Blackwell?”

Max shook her head, “ I wouldn’t really say that ? It was only a few dates and I think the only reason we even tried was because meeting another gay girl in a small town is rare so we both went for it. She was nice, awful taste in guys though. The dude she was dating the last time I heard is such a dickhead. But who knows, if Kate had not came along I could have dated a whole lot worse.”

“Sounds like she helped you a lot.” Chloe felt like an asshole, feeling jealous of Max’s friends wasn’t cool, especially when the said friend had died.

“Yeah… She did.” Max smile was small but bright. “What about you?”

She blinked, “ What about me?”

“You know,” she said a little coy, “Did you find romance out there in the world beyond the bay?”

Chloe blushed, “Oh…. I haven’t dated anyone, there was never really anyone I was interested in.”

Did that make her lame? Probably. But it was true, there was no one that she’d liked enough to even try to get to know. Sure there had been girls that she had wanted, little crushes there and there but nothing that lasted.

Max’s face showed her surprise and Chloe’s blush grew stronger. “Hey there’s nothing wrong with that,” Max tried to reassure her quickly. “Believe me you wouldn’t want to try dating here anyway. The boys at Blackwell are a special type of awful.”

Seeing that as an opening to leaving this embarrassing conversion she had wandered into, Chloe made a show of looking for her shoes again. Max didn’t try and continue, probably sensing that Chloe was uncomfortable.

“How did they get over here?” Somehow her shoes had ended up under Max’s desk. When she leaned down to pick her up, she got a nose full of her clothes, the same clothes she had worn last night and had then put back on after her swim into the pool.

“Aww man,” she smelled them again and her nose bunched up, “My clothes smell like pool.”

Max shorted, “ Probably because of the pool.” She waved a hand at her closet. “You can borrow something if you want? I might have something your size.”

Max’s closet was full of dark clothes, with splashes of red and some blue here and there. There were t-shirts from bands she’d never heard of and jeans that either had holes or would have sagged pretty low on Max’s hips.

Still, even they were too small for Chloe seeing she had about half foot on Max. After a minute of looking through the clothes, and wondering at some of the things Max owned, she found a pair of dark jeans that looked about her size and then a dark colored band shirt that Max had cut up and tied back together. The collar and sleeves had been cut out, and the back was open with only thin lines of cloth running across.

“Hell yeah dude!” Max said from her spot on the bed. “That should work, Kate helped me cut that for a concert.”

Chloe held it up to her chest, “I don’t know Max…It’s not really my style.” With the collar gone the shirt had a little bit of dip though it wouldn’t have been anything scandalous.

Max just laughed, “Chloe I love you but don't have a style. Well, I guess you do, but you can expand it! Don’t worry I’ll be Meryl Streep and you can be Anne Hathaway.”

Chloe laughed, “Fuck off, there nothing wrong with my shirt and jeans.” She looked the shirt over again, a little apprehensive but Max had such a bright smile on her face. “It would be pretty cool to try on some of your punk clothes. But….” she bit her lip, “ I don’t know Max. I would be showing a hella lot of skin.”

Max jumped off the bed, “Come on, Chloe! Put on this shirt what the worst that could happen? With all the shit going on you deserve to cut loose!” She reached over and grabbed Chloe’s shoulders, “ Stop second-guessing yourself, you can afford to take some chances! Whatever you want to try you deserve to try Chloe…. Like right now I dare you to kiss me.”

What.

Chloe froze immediately, her thoughts stopped entirely but she couldn’t stop herself from watching Max’s face looking for any sign that she was joking. Yet all she saw was confidence and a warm smile.

“Kiss? Why- What?”

Max just grinned, “Chloe, I thought you wanted to be rebellious? Well then, come on! I dare you to kiss me.”

Her blushing face had to be bright red, and her heart was pounding, but she still couldn’t put together real thought. But Chloe Price wasn’t known for thinking things though, never had and never would be. So before she could think about all the reasons why kissing her best friend was a bad idea she darted forward, lightly taking hold of her shoulders and pressed her lips to Max’s.

The world drop out for a moment, all she could hear was her rapidly beating heart, then her mind focused in on Max’s lips and her shoulders that Chloe had still had a light hold on. Max was utterly still for a moment before she jumped back.

Chloe’s actions caught up with her mind as she realized that she had just kissed her best friend. Her girl friend, no wait her friend that was a girl, hadn’t she told herself last night that she didn’t want to deal with this? She hadn’t thought about all that when she kissed her but how could she when Max just flat out had asked her to kiss her?

“Damn, Chloe!” Chloe felt a better seeing that Max was at least somewhat affected, her face was a little red, but she was smiling and maybe even a little smug. “See? Isn’t cutting lose fun?”

“Hella,” Chloe said, her hands coming up to run her hands through her still messed up hair. She felt nervous but happy.

Max pointed at her, “ You better not use your powers and take that kiss back, that would be cheating.”

“I won’t….” That had come out softer than she intended and when Max’s face soften she held up the clothes and quickly said, “I- um better get ready!” She left Max’s room without an answer and hurried across the hall to the bathroom.

Chloe looked up the mirror and thought it all over, why she had done it without thinking when she had told herself she was going to mess with it right now and would have to crazy not to admit it to herself at this point.

She was hella crushing on Max.

But what was she going to do about it? Just walk over and tell Max that after two days she wanted to date her best friend? Even if Max did want to be together, Max’s smile after they had kissed flashed through her mind, could they ? Should they? Chloe hadn’t even come out yet, would she be ready if they started dating ? And with everything going on could they really take the time to deal with This?

No, not right now. But after, after they dealt with Blackwell and the storm.

She pushed all of that to the back of her mind and put on the shirt and pants then looked herself over in the mirror. The pants were just a bit tight but fit ok enough. The shirt exposed more skin then she was used too, most of her back was exposed, and the cutoff collar made for a somewhat racely neckline.

Give her some colored hair, and she’d be ready to thrash.

Her confidence was pretty high when she walked back to Max’s room and got even higher when Max blinked at her in surprise. Her friend had been picking through her clothes when she had stepped in and actually dropped the shirt that was in her hands.

“Lookin' sick, dude,” Max said. Her face had a small blush, but she started to smile as she bent down to pick up her dropped shirt.

“Maybe I should get a couple tats and a nose ring to really complete my look.”

“Hell yeah,” Max raised her hand for a high five, “I’ll get you ready for the mosh pit, shaka brah.”

Chloe slapped her hand to Max’s with a snort, “Alright then maybe not you fucking nerd.”

Max put a hand on her heart dramatically, “That hurts. Oh, by the way, my mom is downstairs she’s cooking so yay, free breakfast!”

“I am dying for some pancakes.” Or any food, she’d hadn’t eaten all that much for dinner yesterday. Seeing someone shoot himself kinda made you not very hungry.

Max nodded, “Right who doesn’t love pancakes? But I was thinking….”

Chloe raised an eyebrow, “A hard pastime for you?”

“Fuck off,” Max slapped her arm with a laugh. “My dad shouldn’t be home for a while so I figured that you could keep my mom occupied when I look around in his files.”

“Sounds like a plan. I always did love plans where I can get free food.”

Max rolled her eyes and pushed her out the door, “Yeah yeah, hurry up and start charming my mother would you?”

Chloe started down the stairs, she was still amazed at how much Max’s home hadn’t changed. Even though they hadn’t hanged out there as much as Chloe’s she’d always had a lot of memories here. It was nice to see effects of some of their ruffer advances like a small dent in the wooden railing or a stan on the carpet.

She’d lost a lot of her old things when she’d moved as her mom had gotten rid of a lot of things and she’d lost the house all together. Her height markings on the wall were gone forever, no doubt painted over by whoever moved in after them. Chloe missed that house sometimes, her old room with it’s bright widow. She even missed her place in Seattle since she had to leave a lot of her old nick-nacks behind.

She heard Vanessa before she saw her, she was softly singing along to the radio in the kitchen. Max must have gotten some of her taste in music from her mom as the radio was playing an old 80’s rock song. It didn’t match the scene of the middle age women carefully pouring pancake batter into the pan, but it did remind her of long past weekends where she’d seen this same thing.

“Good morning, Miss Caulfield….”

Vanessa turned around the surprise evident on her face before a smile broke out, “Chloe, I didn’t know you were here!” She looked over Chloe’s outfit, “Did you stay over? It looks like you’ve borrowed some of Max’s clothes.”

“You could tell huh?” Chloe rubbed the back of her head, “I hope it’s ok that I stayed over. It was really late so we couldn’t ask.”  
Vanessa laughed as she flipped the pancake over, “Now Chloe…” She said. “If I remember right I said you could always stay the night here.”

Chloe blinked, “Well that was a couple of years ago, so I didn’t think it still counted.”

Vanessa hummed as she poured more batter in the pan, “Max….has had a hard time ever since you moved away so I won’t lie, I’m happy that she’s bringing home anyone at all. And that shirt reminds me of Kate, Max had been so excited….” She sighed deeply, “That poor sweet girl, it’s been tearing Max right up. It’s been making me worry, but she just refused to talk about it with me.”

“We hadn’t talked about Kate really…”

“That she brought her up with you at all is good enough for me.” Vanessa smiled, “It’s a strange change of pace from when you too were kids.”

Chloe nodded, who could have seen that Max was going to be the face of teenage rebellion? “I’m glad that she had someone here for her, even if she didn’t want it to be me.” It hurt to think about, but it was true. She couldn’t wish that Max had stayed alone all these years like Chloe had.

Vanessa turned to Chloe entirely instead of watching the pancakes and raised an eyebrow, “Are you jealous of Kate’s friendship with Max?”

She looked away, a little ashamed, “I- God I’m awful. It’s just that everything that I’ve heard about Kate makes her sound so….And Max is so much cooler than me now, I don’t think I can keep up with her.”

“You know Max has been telling me that she wished she could be, what did she say….Ah yes ‘confident and outgoing as Chloe’ ever since she met you?” Vanessa started to laugh, “ That girl has been looking up to you ever since you convinced her to sneak out of our yard when you were kids.”

“Oh …..really?” Chloe smiled, she knew that when they were kids, she’d been the one that started most of their ‘adventures’ but hearing that Max looked up to her after spending years apart made her stomach flatter.

“Alright, I think I have enough pancakes for two teenagers….” Vanessa picked up the truly massive plate of pancakes and motioned Chloe to follow, “ Come on then, no use waiting for Max that girl doesn’t get up till noon these days.”

Chloe sat down at the table, her mouth watering. “Thanks, Mis Caulfield!” She quickly piled on pancakes on her plate and started to wolf them down.

Vanessa walked back to the kitchen with, “You're welcome Chloe. And don’t worry the old rule that you and Max clean up still counts too.”

Chloe didn’t try to speak over her food, her own mother had finally gotten her to stop that, but held up her hand in a thumbs up. Movement caught her eye from the stairs, Max creeping down them. Their eyes met from across the room, Max jerked her head in the direction of her father’s work room then the kitchen in question.

Chloe nodded quickly, and Max darted past the door, not a moment later Vanessa walked out of the kitchen. She sighed in relief, at least she didn’t have to use her powers so early in the morning.

“Seeing you again,” Vanessa said unaware,“ Brings back so many memories….” She went over to the living room and pulled out what looked like a photo album. She sat down next to Chloe and put the album on the table. It had ‘MAX’ written in large block letters on the cover.

“Do you remember how much Max loved taking photos ?” Vanessa rubbed the cover with a soft smile, but her eyes showed a deep sadness. “ She would beg for months for a new camera.”

Chloe nodded with her own soft smile, “Yeah I remember saving up money for those cheap disposable ones for a birthday present. Then we both had to beg for money to get them developed.”

Vanessa laughed as she opened the album, “ Oh yes I remember that. You both were so shocked at how much film cost.” The first photo was of Max and Kate. Max had longer hair, just long enough that it touched her ears, with purple dyed tips. She was wearing the same shirt that Chloe had on now, but on her, it looked like it would have fallen off at any moment. Her face was lit up and her arm was around Kate, whose own smile matched. Chloe was surprised that Kate was actually a little more low key with her outfit, a t-shirt and a sleeveless jacket.

“Max’s look still surprises me a little.”

The snort from Vanessa was surprising, “You and me both.” She flipped the page, this time it was a picture of Max’s birthday party. Max’s parents both had an arm around her and Max looked a little uncomfortable. Vanessa traced the photo with a frown, “I wish Max got along better with her father….”

Chloe hesitated for a moment then said, “He is kinda a jerk? I mean I know him from around school…..”

Vanessa didn’t look surprised and only sighed, “I know that Ryan can seem a little ruff, but he only wants what's best for us.” She flipped the page over, and Chloe let it go for now. Getting into an argument with Max’s mom was not on her to do list.

This photo was older than the others, if Chloe guess right it was about the time that she moved. Actually…. She looked it over closer, Max’s hair was longer and pulled back in a ponytail while her own was even longer. They had their arms wrapped around each other with large grins on their face and a little bit of flour on their cheeks. It came to her in a flash when this picture had been taken.

The day her dad had died.

Max had stayed the night, again, and they had spent most of the day playing around. Water balloon fighting in the backyard, finishing their wooden meral. Her father asked them to help with dinner, but since they were still pretty young, the only thing they could cook was pancakes. They had ended up throwing the flour at each other, William had laughed at their play fighting, told them that it better be clean before he got back and left to pick up her mom from work.

He never made it there because he had been t-boned by a truck going 20 miles over the limit and had been killed on impact.

“ Oh, I’m sorry Chloe,” Vanessa placed a hand on her shoulder, “I didn't mean to bring up….”

Chloe sniffed, she hadn’t cried about her dad in years, but the picture had brought up some deep emotions. “It’s fine, I wasn't expecting it…”

Max’s mom rubbed her shoulder for a moment then reached down to the album. She pulled it out carefully, “I think you should have it.”

“Oh,” Chloe took it gently, “Are you sure?”

Vanessa nodded, “Of crouse. I know that Joyce didn’t keep much when you moved so this will help you remember the good times alright?”

Chloe nodded, “Thanks….” She stared at the picture again for a moment before folding it carefully so she could put it in her pocket.

Vanessa patted her shoulder again, “Why don’t you look though the rest of that? I should go ahead and start cleaning up the kitchen before I go off to the old grind.”

“Oh, I can help clean up if you want?” Chloe stood up from the table, she didn’t really want to clean, but that's just what you did when you were at a friends house.

Before Vanessa, no doubt refused the door from the garage slammed open, and Max stormed out, some vanilla folders clinched in her hands. When she caught sight of her mom her faces tighten before she glared. Chloe frowned, the whole point of her staying in here with Max’s mom was so Max could get in there without her knowing.

“Did you know Dad was doing this ?” Max raised the folders, her fingers clenched tight, she wasn’t yelling but only just. Her eyes were shining and a little red, like she’d been crying.

“Maxine Caulfield don’t take that tone with me,” Vanessa put her hands on her hips. “What on earth were you doing in-“

“Did you KNOW?!” She tossed the folders on to the table where their contents slid out of them. They were pictures and over a dozen pages of notes. “ Did you let him do this?”

Chloe reached over to a picture, it was a little out of focus, but she could clearly make out Max. She was in a park with Justin and Trevor, it looked like they had been skateboarding as Max was holding one in her hand. There was a circle in bright red around the boys with a question mark.

She took a glance at the other pictures, Max alone, Max with Kate, Max with Frank….

“Your dad is spying on you ?”

Max nodded and grabbed one of the folders, “He’s spying on most of the kids at Blackwell.” She took the pictures inside and slammed them on the table, “ You included.”

Chloe took the picture, it was her from when she first started at Blackwell, Bradshaw had marked it with, ‘no threat at this time.’

Vanessa was pale, her hand covered her face. She reached over and spread the pictures out so she could look at them closely. “Good lord,” she mumbled to herself.

Before either of them could process this the front door slammed open, and Bradshaw called out from the entryway, “ Vanessa I hope you cooked because I am starving.” There were sounds of his heavy boots hitting the floor. “Someone broke into the fucking gym and-” He cut himself off upon seeing Chloe sitting at his table. “The hell are you doing here? I thought I told you that you weren’t welcome in my house?”

Before Max could start yelling, as Chloe could tell she wanted too from her red face and clenched teeth, Vanessa rounded the table and stood in front of them both. “Chloe is and always will be welcome in my home Ryan.” Her voice didn’t conceal her anger, and her glare was fierce.

Bradshaw took a step back, and his face clearly showed his confusion. But it quickly turned to anger as well. “She,” he pointed to her with a glare, “brought drugs into-”

Vanessa scoffed, “It was weed, Ryan, not heroin. We both know that it probably wasn’t hers, so leave her be.”

“How about you stop spying on me too?” Max threw out from behind her mom.

“Don't start,” Bradshaw said.

“No, she has a right to say it.” Vanessa picked up a picture from the table and showed it to him. “You are paranoid, spying on own our daughter? Other kids ?”

Chloe stood up in support, “You're nothing more than a bully. Everybody at Blackwell is a suspect to you, except for Nathan Prescott... Look how that fucking turned out. He tried to kill Taylor and me.... but no, you threatened me instead.”

Bradshaw crossed his arms, going on defense as he was outnumbered. “Nathan showed no signs of wrongdoing-”

Max thew her hands up, “So I did? Chloe did? Everyone besides him needed you spying on them? Why do you have photos of Kate and Rachel Amber in your files anyway?”

Vanessa nodded, “Yes, why do you have these files at all? I think this is all disturbing.”

Bradshaw backed up again, “I-I do not have to take this kind of interrogation, not in my own home!”

Vanessa crossed her arms as well, “It’s not an interrogation Ryan, calm down.”

Bradshaw glared, “I can’t believe your turning on me. Over these punks…. Well you know what ? Fuck you!"

“Get out,” Vanessa’s voice showed her quite anger as she pointed at the door. “I don’t care where you go, get a room at a hotel or sleep in your truck for all I care.”

”You can't kick me out of my own damn house!”

“It's my damn house.” Vanessa pointed out. “It and every bill are in my name. Which means I can kick you out if I want too.”

“Is that what you're doing? Kicking me out?” When his wife nodded he rolled his eyes. “Fine….I see how it is, I know when I'm outflanked.” He turned around and started up the stairs stomping his way to their room, “I’ll just get my damn clothes and be get out of ‘your’ fucking house!”

The living room was quiet and Chloe felt a little awkward seeing a very private moment for Max’s family. Max still looked upset, understandable since she just found out that her father had been spying on her. She creeped out herself, even if she hadn’t done anything wrong. Vanessa, however, looked calm. Though the way her fingers were clenching at her arms made Chloe think that she was just trying to hide her anger from them.  
“Why don’t you two go off and start your day?” Vanessa said suddenly. “Max go ahead and take Chole on up to Blackwell.”

“Mom?”

Vanessa walked over to her purse, “ It’s alright sweetheart.” She pulled out some bills and handed them to Max. “Go ahead and get yourself some lunch too.” She turned a glare to where Bradshaw had disappeared. “ I need to have a word with your father.

Max nodded, “Ok. Come on, Chloe let’s go.” She pulled her mom in a quick hug and when for the door.

Chloe followed after her, but Vanessa pulled her over into a hug as well. “Thank you for being for Max….” She whispered into her ear. Vanessa pulled away and patted her arms, “ I meant what I said alright? Your welcome here whenever.”

Feeling a little choked up Chloe nodded, “I know….”

Vanessa nodded with a smile, “Good. Then go on .”

Max was waiting by the door for her and whispered to her so that her mom couldn’t hear. “Dad had more stuff in his files then just him spying on me…”

“More?” Chloe hissed back. “Dude your dad is nuts!”

She nodded her mouth set in a deep frown, “You don’t know the half of it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took forever and a day, sorry my dudes. I got a new job, got sick, started two other fics, went back to my Xena one for a bit, had to re-write half of this chapter..... But I finished it! I'm still not super duper happy about the kiss but it'll have to do. 
> 
> Next is Frank and maybe the start of the Alt timeline? I don't know yet, I have a good idea for my own Alt timeline but I don't know where I want that chapter to start....So the next chapter could be really short or really long idk
> 
> I'm chloepleasestopdying over on tumblr so come over and yell at me

**Author's Note:**

> This started as an ask on Tumblr and it has grown into this.... thing. The ask was for a full swap but for this fic I only full swapped Max and Chloe's and there are other's that I swapped their storylines. 
> 
> If you would like to yell at me I'm over at chloepleasestopdying


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